Washington, DC — Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing with AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez, investigating the drug company’s price gouging and anticompetitive practices. In 2003, AbbVie launched its signature arthritis drug, Humira, which has since become the best-selling drug in the world — raking in $21 billion in sales in 2019 alone. AbbVie has raised the price of Humira an astounding 27 times, most recently in January when it hiked its cost by 7.4 percent. During the hearing led by Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (NY-12), Democrats made a strong and compelling case for giving Medicare the power to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices for all Americans. Republicans, on the other hand, defended AbbVie’s abuse of the broken drug pricing system. In response, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement:
“We commend Chairwoman Maloney and House Democrats for holding AbbVie accountable in today’s hearing. Year after year, AbbVie hikes the prices of its most expensive medications, not because of any improvement to their drugs or increased cost of development — but just because they can. For far too long, too many Americans have been forced to skip their medications because companies like AbbVie care more about their profits than people’s health. The House Oversight Committee’s investigation lays bare the need for giving Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices, and particularly as the country recovers from the COVID-19 economic and health crisis, American families cannot wait.”
Protect Our Care submitted a written statement for today’s hearing. Last week, Protect Our Care launched The Campaign to Reduce Drug Prices with an ad running on television nationally and digitally in 12 key states to demonstrate the urgent need for comprehensive legislation to lower drug prices.