Posted by Michael Wonder on 27 Mar 2017
Pfizer chief says government efforts to contain drug prices will backfire
27 March 2017 - Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drug manufacturer, is no stranger to the growing controversy over price gouging and anti-competitive practices that have drawn sharp criticism from President Trump and prompted calls for government intervention.
Last December, for example, Pfizer and Flynn Pharma Ltd. were hit with record fines totaling more than $110 million in Great Britain after they were found to have conspired to increase prices by as much as 2,600 percent for unbranded versions of the anti-epilepsy drug Epanutin.
Ian C. Read, Pfizer’s hard-edged, Scottish-born CEO and chairman, has been unapologetic about his company’s dubious pricing practices. Last week, he gave no ground on the larger question about whether drug prices need to be reined in to protect consumers and taxpayers from rising prescription drug costs at Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Affairs Department.
During a speech at the National Press Club, Read delivered an impassioned defence of the drug industry’s pricing practices, while denouncing any effort to impose government price controls as “a bad policy.”
