Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is taking on the pharmaceutical companies who are ripping off Georgia families.
This week, in a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ossoff called out the abusive practices of pharmaceutical companies who are using unfair practices to reduce generic medicine competition and hike prices, forcing Georgia families to pay exorbitant prices for life-saving medicine.
During the hearing, Sen. Ossoff highlighted the stories of Georgians who struggle to afford essential medications, urging his colleagues to prioritize bipartisan legislation he co-sponsored that would enhance competition, reduce costs, and ensure access to life-saving drugs.
He also underscored the importance of addressing the monopolistic practices that often drive-up prices and limit consumer choices.
“The prices that Georgians are paying for prescriptions are outrageous,” Sen. Ossoff said in the hearing. “The tremendous lobbying power of the pharmaceutical industry is a major driver of the outrageous prices that Americans pay. We made big progress capping the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare Part D at $35/month, finally empowering Medicare to undertake some negotiation with pharma over prices, but we have a long way to go.”
According to The Current, Georgia ranks 4th in the nation for highest out-of-pocket prescription drug costs, and the state possess the third-highest number of uninsured people living in the state.
Sen. Ossoff continues working to increase Georgians’ access to lifesaving medicine and health coverage.
In December, Sen. Ossoff led a bipartisan, bicameral group of Georgia’s Congressional Delegation requesting an update from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the shortage of drugs needed to treat cancer patients.
In November, the U.S. Senate passed Sen. Ossoff’s bipartisan amendment to expand access to breast cancer screenings for Georgia veterans.
Last year, Sen. Ossoff helped pushed a package of bipartisan bills through the Senate Judiciary Committee to bring down prescription drug costs and improve transparency in the pharmaceutical industry.
In 2022, Sen. Ossoff successfully passed provisions into law that capped the out-of-pocket cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare at $35 per month.
Click here to watch Sen. Ossoff’s line of questioning.
Please find a transcript of Sen. Ossoff’s line of questioning below:
SEN. OSSOFF: “Dr. Feldman, I want to discuss with you the prices that Georgians are paying for inhalers — children on Medicaid, seniors on Medicare, and everybody in between.
“First, I just want to note generally the prices that Georgians are paying for prescriptions are outrageous. The stories that come to me in my office are shocking.
“From a constituent who right now is having difficulty making ends meet and affording cancer treatment who, watched their own friend die from being unable to afford cancer treatment.
“A veteran in Georgia who right now is having to scrape together thousands of dollars per month in order to afford leukemia treatment.
“Kids and seniors with asthma, or COPD, who are having to pay exorbitant prices for inhalers, medical devices across the board. And the tremendous lobbying power of the pharmaceutical industry is a major driver of the outrageous prices that Americans pay.
“And of course, there’s a balance that we have to strike between making sure that research and development, and innovation are rewarded, and the interests of patients and consumers, but this country is not getting the balance right.
“We made big progress capping the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare Part D at $35/month, finally empowering Medicare to undertake some negotiation with pharma over prices, but we have a long way to go.
“And let’s talk for a moment Dr. Feldman, about inhalers, and I know that some voluntary caps are now in place, but Medicare, Medicaid still not participating in that. You’ve seen countless patients, you’re a pulmonologist, correct?”
DR. FELDMAN: “That’s right.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “And so you’ve seen countless patients dealing with serious life-threatening asthma and COPD. Is that right?”
DR. FELDMAN: “That’s correct.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “How long have inhalers been on the market?”
DR. FELDMAN: “The first metered dose inhaler was approved by the FDA in 1956.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “1956. In the last few decades, have the active ingredients in these devices substantially changed?”
DR. FELDMAN: “No, since 1986, there have been no inhalers for asthma or COPD, with a new mechanism of action. That means of the dozens upon dozens of brand-new inhalers that have been approved, not a single one has an active ingredient that is fundamentally different from other active ingredients in the same class.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “For three and a half decades, you’re saying the active ingredients have been basically the same?”
DR. FELDMAN: “That’s right, some tweaks to the molecules where you get new active ingredients and but in the same class and so fundamentally, no major breakthroughs in terms of managing these diseases from inhalers.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “So, why are so many Georgians and so many Americans still paying hundreds of dollars for these devices?”
DR. FELDMAN: “I think it comes back to really what we’re focused on in this hearing today, which is these problematic patenting practices, product tops, where companies are taking decades old active ingredients, getting patent protection for the delivery devices for other aspects of the products, and it allows them to keep prices high by limiting generic competition.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “So, product hopping or device hopping, just for folks tuned in from Georgia define that in a nutshell.”
DR. FELDMAN: “That’s where you take the same ingredient, or set of ingredients, and put them from an old delivery device, into a new delivery device, that may be no better than the earlier one. but it does have new patents.
“So, it allows you to move people from an old device to a new device, if you’re a brand name company, earn a lot more revenue by doing so, but to no benefit for patients.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “And so that patent based upon no innovation of the underlying medicine, some nominal innovation of the device then boxes out competitors, generics, and helps keep prices high. Right?”
DR. FELDMAN: “That’s exactly right.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “Now, I do want to note some manufacturers have agreed to cap out of pocket costs for inhalers; does that apply to Medicaid or Medicare?”
DR. FELDMAN: “It does not. Those caps do not apply to Medicare and Medicaid.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “So, for a kid on Peach Care in Georgia, for a senior and I think, according my notes here, one in 9 Medicare beneficiaries have COPD, those caps don’t apply.”
DR. FELDMAN: “That’s correct.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “Where else do we see this this practice of device hopping or product hopping?”
DR. FELDMAN: “We see it really for all drug device combinations. What are drug device combinations? Those include products like insulin pens, inhalers, epi pens, GLP one receptor agonists that Senator Welch was asking you about. So, it seems like kind of a niche set of products. but in fact, if you look at the top 50 spending, top 50 drugs by Medicare spending in 2022 by gross spending, 40% are actually drug device combinations.”
SEN. OSSOFF: “Just about every family in Georgia, has had to think at some point about ‘do I need to carry around an epi pen for my child who has an allergy?’ ‘Do I need to purchase an inhaler for my child with asthma or for a grandparent suffering from COPD?’ and yet, these abusive practices where there’s not innovation on the underlying drug, but there’s some nominal change in the product is boxing out competition and keeping prices high.
“And this is, Mr. Chairman, a place where I hope we can achieve some bipartisan consensus to make progress for Georgians who are struggling for these basic medical products. Thank you, Dr. Feldman.”
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