19 June 2019 - His adversaries call him a shill for health insurers, a bloodless bean counter who would rather let some sick people die than see them get expensive life-saving medicines.

But Steven Pearson, founder of an obscure nonprofit watchdog group in Boston, is wielding growing influence on what some of the world’s biggest drug makers charge for their products.

Just last month, the head of Swiss drug giant Novartis said he could justify a price tag of up to $5 million for a soon-to-be approved gene therapy for a deadly rare disease. But CEO Vas Narasimhan said the company wouldn’t do that — and cited talks with the watchdog group partly for its decision.

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