Warren takes on drug companies at health care conference
1/22/15

Addressing a leading health reform advocacy group, the Massachusetts Democrat lambasted pharmaceutical firms that are “making money by skirting the law” even while relying on taxpayer-supported research to develop blockbuster medications.

“It seems that the biggest drug companies are increasingly playing by a different set of rules than everyone else,” Warren said in a 20-minute speech during Families USA’s annual Health Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

Warren is the latest in a string of Democratic heavyweights to speak at the annual meeting of Families USA, one of the strongest supporters of the Affordable Care Act.

...Warren, who has made financial reform her signature issue, lauded the Affordable Care Act for reducing the country’s uninsured and providing millions of people access to health care. The improvements over the last few years have been “pretty amazing,” she said. But access is only half of the picture, she continued, calling for legislation that would require law-breaking drug companies to put more money into funding research through NIH.

“Drug companies make great contributions, but so do taxpayers. In other words, we built those medical innovations together,” Warren said to a round of applause from the hundreds of advocates and outreach workers in attendance.

She plans to introduce the bill next week and criticized companies that have withheld safety information about their drugs and given doctors “kickbacks for writing prescriptions.” Between 2007 and 2012, she said, the largest pharmaceutical companies paid more than $13 billion in fines and settlements from violating federal laws.

“We should make it easier for the biggest drug companies to help develop the next generation of cures and harder for them to profit from breaking the law and defrauding taxpayers,” Warren said.....

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/elizabeth-warren-drug-companies-114499.html