‘Hedge-Fund Model’ Drug Pricing Needs New Law, Senators Say
- Bipartisan report investigates four drug companies’ pricing
- Senators suggest incentives to increase generic competition
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A U.S. Senate committee is calling for the government to stop the “monopoly business model” employed by some drug companies to exorbitantly raise the price of decades-old treatments in a report that could preview legislation next year.
After a yearlong investigation, the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Chairwoman Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, and Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, said that four drugmakers they looked at act more like hedge funds than pharmaceutical companies. The drugmakers in the report include Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, which have both attracted criticism for price increases on older drugs that lack competition.