The Committee on Oversight and Reform obtained more than 1.5 million pages of internal company documents, held five hearings, and released eight interim staff reports.
The panel's chair by Rep. Carolyn Maloney noted in a letter at the beginning of the report. "The investigation has provided a rare glimpse into the decision-making of many of the world's most profitable drug companies."
Specifically, as a committee statement detailed, the probe revealed:
Drug companies aggressively raise prices to meet revenue targets, and executive compensation structures create incentives to raise prices;
Drug companies target the U.S. market for higher prices and use the Medicare program to boost revenue;
Drug companies use strategies to suppress competition and maintain monopoly pricing;
Drug companies use patient assistance programs as a public relations tool to boost sales; and
Research and manufacturing costs do not justify price increases.
The panel investigated insulin products manufactured by Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, and found that those companies "targeted the United States for price increases, and Medicare lost out on more than $16 billion in savings." The trio also "engaged in strategies to maintain monopoly pricing and defend against competition" from generic versions of their brand-name drugs.
The committee also looked into Pfizer's pain-management drug Lyrica, and found that the drug giant "targeted the U.S. market for price increases" and "used patent protections, market exclusivities, and other tactics to delay generic competition and keep prices high."
The top ten pharma companies paid their CEOs $800 MILLION in just four years.
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