US congressional leaders attack high pharma company prices

Congressional leaders in the US are challenging the high prices Americans pay for pharmaceuticals. Last week, the House Oversight Committee held two days of hearings, each beginning with the release of a congressional report containing drug company internal emails and strategy documents on pricing, followed by livestreamed forums with corporate executives forced to testify before the public.

“These companies sell drugs that are critical to our health and wellbeing, but their skyrocketing prices are unsustainable,” said chairwoman Carolyn B Maloney. Committee investigators spent almost two years examining more than a million pages of company internal documents that were requested in January 2019. Their reports provide new details about how and why company executives keep charging more.

On the first day of …