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“Aging Committee Announces Witnesses for Upcoming Drug Pricing Hearing”

Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Time: 3:30 PM

Location: Hart Senate Office Building, Room 216

 

Washington, D.C.—Senate Aging Committee Chairman Susan Collins and Ranking Member Claire McCaskill will hold the third hearing in a series the Committee is conducting to investigate the sudden, aggressive price spikes of decades-old Rx drugs on Wednesday, April 27th, at 3:30 PM in the Hart Senate Office Building, Room 216.

The Committee held the first hearing of the series in December 2015.  From the beginning, the bipartisan investigation has focused on pharmaceutical companies that devised their business models to impose and protect egregious price hikes, and what policy changes are needed to respond to their actions.

The second hearing, held on March 17th,  took an in-depth look inside the monopoly business models of Turing and Retrophin, both formerly headed by Martin Shkreli.

This year alone, Americans are expected to spend more than $328 billion on prescription drugs.  Of this amount, individuals will pay about $50 billion out-of-pocket.  The federal government will pick up another $110 billion in payments through Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs, and other programs.

 

Panel One:

 

Berna Heyman, Wilson Disease patient, and retired Associate Dean of Libraries, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia

 

Dr. Frederick K. Askari, M.D. PhD., Associate Professor, and Director, Wilson Disease Center of Excellence, University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Michigan

 

Dr. Richard Fogel, M.D., FACC, FHRS, Chief Clinical Officer, St. Vincent, Indianapolis, Indiana

 

Panel Two:

 

J. Michael Pearson, Chief Executive Officer, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., Bridgewater, New Jersey

 

Howard Schiller, Current Director, former Chief Financial Officer, and former Interim Chief Executive Officer, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., Bridgewater, New Jersey

 

Bill Ackman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Pershing Square Capital Management LP, New York, New York; Director, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., Bridgewater, New Jersey.

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