2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Find Common Enemy in Drug Exec
The stark differences in what each candidate did with this issue caught my attention.
http://time.com/4078731/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-martin-shkreli/
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Find Common Enemy in Drug Exec
Sam Frizell @Sam_Frizell
Oct. 19, 2015
http://time.com/4078731/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-martin-shkreli/
Bloomberg/Getty Images Martin Shkreli on Aug. 10, 2011 in New York City.
Martin Shkreli drew criticism after hiking up the price of an AIDS drug
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have found a convenient enemy in Martin Shkreli, the widely-criticized former hedge fund manager who raised the price of a lifesaving drug, and both the Democratic candidates for president have escalated their attacks on the beleaguered businessman in recent days.
Clinton sent letters to the heads of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission...........
Sanders sent out a fundraising letter to his supporters on Monday, touting his refusal to accept money from Shkreli for his presidential campaign.
..................
Clinton’s letter to the FDA calls for speedier access to generic versions of Daraprim, urging regulators to expedite reviews of the drug and make them available quickly. In her letter to the FTC, she asked the agency to consider new laws that would reduce Turing’s dominance of the market for Daraprim.
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Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)This may explain why so many are ignoring the Republicans, who are the real enemy.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)in their criticism of that hedge-fund a-hole who literally holds the lives of ill people in his greedy little hands.
Thank you, Hillary!
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)"Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has received more campaign cash from drug companies than any candidate in either party, even as she proudly declares the industry is one of her biggest enemies."
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/257234-clinton-brings-in-most-big-pharma-money-of-2016-field
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)president in 2016, and who they hope to influence, just as Wall Street sent Obama money when he ran in 2007. It didn't buy Wall Street much back then and it hasn't changed Hillary Clinton's tough stances against the pharmaceutical industry ever.
Thanks for the link to the article you're referring to.
From the article at your link (bold is mine):
Let's also not forget she's written letters to "the heads of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission" regarding Martin Shkreli's Daraprim, where the best chances to curb his greed can happen through the power of the Federal Gov't.
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)Yes, more than any other candidate. I'm confident they have her private assurances. She is a 'moderate' so nothing much will happen beyond window dressing, should she win the election.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)But that doesn't mean she'll do their bidding, and given her history taking on Big Pharma since the 1993 failed HillaryCare (when Big Pharma joined Big HealthInsurance to defeat the bill), she never will. She's now publicly declared Big Pharma one of her enemies during the debate. This is on record. But she's a savvy politician, and she understands that with the implementation of Citizens United, she's going to need money in order to combat the Republican money machine this election - something Bernie and his supporters just won't acknowledge even exists - in order to deny the Republicans the White House.
I do give heartfelt kudos to Bernie Sanders for rejecting the $2,700 donation by Daraprim's Martin Shkreli.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)All that guy did was go so far that he went off the charts of acceptability. But he is just a caricature of what Big Pharma does every day on a systemic basis.
He was easy to revile. But if Clinton were sincere, she'd return money from Big Pharma.
We need more fundamental transformation of healthcare system than beating on one outlier.
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)As a reminder, the OP was referring to Turing Pharmaceuticals owned by hedge-fund a-hole, Martin Shkleri.
Doxycycline, an antibiotic, went from $20 a bottle in October 2013 to $1,849 by April 2014, according to the two lawmakers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=0
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)It is called morals and either you have them or you don't.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)around and sends a fundraising e-mail to his supporters which will undoubtedly bring in a heckuva lot more than a measly $2700. Clever, but transparent.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)someone. Do you think it would have done more good to return it? Of course not. Therefore, your outrage is a bit suspect.
RichVRichV
(885 posts)of who candidates likely supports, it's really just comparing scraps. If we want to know what candidates are in with which groups we need to know who is donating large sums to their super pacs. Unfortunately that's all legally hidden from us. So we don't actually know who is bought by whom. Until this is corrected all we really have to go by is past actions of candidates to judge who they favor and who they don't.
This is an indictment of our corrupted system, not directed at Hillary or any specific candidate.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)sgtbenobo
(327 posts)
karynnj
(59,504 posts)of that in their article -- on which HRC based her tweet. None of which you bothered to look at.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)the corporation that Sanders and Cummings launched an investigation into regarding some older drugs.
Hillary Clinton is no longer in Congress and cannot launch a congressional investigation. But she did write to the heads of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTA) "asking the agencies to protect consumers from the drug price hike Shkreli engineered at Turing Pharmaceuticals on the medicine Daraprim" while Sanders wrote a fundraising letter.
That was a wrong move by him.
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)JRLeft
(7,010 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)JRLeft
(7,010 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)If you don't believe Big Pharma is Hillary Clinton's enemy, you didn't pay attention when they spent millions to defeat HillaryCare in 1993. But facts be damned, believe what you want to believe.
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)when they overstep their bounds - as she showed by writing the heads of the FDA and FTC agencies to ask them to protect consumers against Shkleri's price gouging. Doesn't sound as if she's in the tank for them, does it?
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)JRLeft
(7,010 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)the facts. But as I've said before...if it helps you sleep better, go for it.
JRLeft
(7,010 posts)Hillary isn't corporate to justify your support.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)karynnj
(59,504 posts)as having been investigating the practice of raising prices for generics after a new company acquired the company that made them. The letter that they wrote seemed to be the basis for the NYT investigation.
(Sanders and Commings mentioned in 7th paragraph - and the NYT seems to have made cut and paste harder - so they obviously don't want people doing it. So, here is the link.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=0
It was this September NYT article that led to HRC's (correct) call that something had to be done - made by the next day! So, not only has Sanders made the same call -- the NYT article that triggered it seems based on work that he and Cummings did in the Congress.
Here is the next day's NYT article on HRC - http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/business/big-price-increase-for-tb-drug-is-rescinded.html
(Note that they link back to the earlier story and speak of how that information "spread into the political sphere"}
So, this is actually a good story all around. Two good Democrats, including Bernie, in Congress investigated this incredible gorging on several generic drugs, the NYT wrote a article that went viral that clearly explained the practice, HRC by tweet and in a speech the next day called them out and said it had to stop -- note that the company rolled back the increase by the next day. Good on everyone involved.
But -- yeah -- sending out a tweet is really leading.
artislife
(9,497 posts)Thanks for posting the links.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)has nothing to do with Turing Pharmaceuticals, as per your own links.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)karynnj
(59,504 posts)And that drug was the focus of the NYT article. Both Cunmmings/Sanders and the NYT were the substance behind HRC'S tweet.
This is important and HRC is getting plenty of credit for helping make it an issue, which she deserves, but it is not fair to argue Bernie did nothing and to attack him for fund raising.
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)Trying to wear a Bernie mask. But she takes pharma money...
whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)Sideshow indirection. An easy target for grandstanding. Let me know when Hillary bites the hand that feeds her.
karynnj
(59,504 posts)It mentions that Cummings and Sanders addressed this issue the month before. If YOU bothered to learn anything about Bernie you would know that high prices for drugs was long an issue he lead on.
as having been investigating the practice of raising prices for generics after a new company acquired the company that made them. The letter that they wrote seemed to be the basis for the NYT investigation.
(Sanders and Commings mentioned in 7th paragraph - and the NYT seems to have made cut and paste harder - so they obviously don't want people doing it. So, here is the link.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=0
It was this September NYT article that led to HRC's (correct) call that something had to be done - made by the next day! So, not only has Sanders made the same call -- the NYT article that triggered it seems based on work that he and Cummings did in the Congress.
Here is the next day's NYT article on HRC - http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/business/big-price-increase-for-tb-drug-is-rescinded.html
(Note that they link back to the earlier story and speak of how that information "spread into the political sphere"}
So, this is actually a good story all around. Two good Democrats, including Bernie, in Congress investigated this incredible gorging on several generic drugs, the NYT wrote a article that went viral that clearly explained the practice, HRC by tweet and in a speech the next day called them out and said it had to stop -- note that the company rolled back the increase by the next day. Good on everyone involved.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)more than Hillary about the issue.
Try this for starters:
Access to health care is a human right, and that includes access to safe and affordable prescription drugs. It is time to enact prescription drug policies that work for everyone, not just the CEOs of the pharmaceutical industry.
The Problem
Americans pay, by far, the highest prices for prescription drugs in the entire world. When we talk about health care, we are talking about the need of the American people to be able to afford the medicine their health care providers prescribe. A life-saving drug does no good if the people who need it cannot afford that drug.
Yet, last year, nearly one in five Americans between the ages of 19 and 64 – 35 million people – did not get their prescriptions filled because they did not have enough money. In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, Americans should not have to live in fear that they will go bankrupt or die because they cannot afford to take the medication they need.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/fighting-to-lower-prescription-drug-prices/
In any given month, more than half of all American adults take at least one prescription drug. There is no question that medicines help millions of people live healthier and longer lives, and can also prevent more expensive illnesses and treatments. However, it is unacceptable that the United States now spends more than $370 billion on prescription drugs and spending is rising faster than at any point in the last decade.
Instead of listening to the demands of the pharmaceutical industry and their 1,400 lobbyists, it is time that Congress started listening to the American people, who overwhelmingly believe that the cost of medication is too expensive. More than 70 percent of Americans believe drug costs are unreasonable and that drug companies are putting profits before people.
The Sanders Plan To Lower Prescription Drug Prices
Americans filled 4.3 billion prescriptions last year. The Sanders plan includes six policies to get better deals for the American people. Sanders’ plan will:
1. Negotiate A Better Deal
Require Medicare to use its bargaining power to negotiate with the prescription drug companies for better prices – a practice that is currently banned by law.
Last year there were more than 37 million Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in private Part D plans. 90 percent of seniors take at least one prescription. Many seniors – almost two-thirds – take three or more prescription drugs.
Not only would negotiation substantially reduce prices seniors and people with disabilities pay for drugs, it could save Medicare between $230 billion to $541 billion dollars over the next decade.
83 percent of Americans support allowing the federal government to negotiate with drug companies for better prices.
2. Import Prescriptions from Canada
Allow individuals, pharmacists, and wholesalers to import prescription drugs from licensed Canadian pharmacies.
The United States spends more than $1,000 per person per year on prescription drugs – that’s nearly 40 percent more than Canada, the next highest spender.
In 1999, Sanders became the first Member of Congress to take a busload of Americans across the border into Canada to purchase prescription drugs. Americans should not have to pay higher prices for the exact same drugs than our Canadian neighbors simply because Congress is bought and paid for by the powerful pharmaceutical industry.
72 percent of Americans support this policy of allowing Americans to easily import safe and affordable prescription drugs from Canada.
Prohibit the United States from agreeing to provisions in international trade deals that would raise drug prices in the United States or extend the monopoly period when a brand name drug company has no generic competition.
Suspend the government’s authority to destroy packages of imported drugs at the border until new legislation is passed ensuring that Americans can import safe and affordable drugs from Canada.
3. Restore Discounts for Low-Income Seniors
Close the Medicare Part D donut hole for brand and generic drugs by 2017, three years earlier than under current law.
The private Medicare Part D benefit contains a “donut hole.” It’s a coverage gap, wherein seniors and people with disabilities must pay for their medications even while they are paying monthly premiums. Under current law, this gap in coverage will close by 2020. Sanders’ plan closes the gap by 2017.
Require generic drug companies to pay an additional rebate to Medicaid if their drug prices rise faster than inflation.
Brand name drug makers have to pay a rebate to Medicaid if their drug prices rise faster than inflation. This provision ensures generic drug companies are subject to the same rules. Nearly 10 percent of generic drugs more than doubled in price last year. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, this policy will save the federal government $1 billion over 10 years.
Restore Medicare prescription drug discounts for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.
Pharmaceutical companies got a huge victory ten years ago, when prescription drug coverage for low-income seniors and people with disabilities was moved from Medicaid to Medicare. Because Medicaid gets a much better price for prescription drugs than private Medicare Part D plans, this policy change meant that drug companies would gain even larger profits on the backs of low-income seniors at the taxpayers’ expense.
The Sanders plan will restore these rebates for low-income seniors, saving $103 billion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
4. Prohibit Deals that Keep Generic Drugs Off the Market
Prohibit anti-competitive deals – “pay-for-delay” deals – between brand and generic drug makers.
Brand name drug companies sometimes try to delay their competition by paying generic drug makers to stay off the market. When these deals occur, drug prices stay high, costing patients and taxpayers more money.
The Sanders plan prohibits these pay-for-delay deals. According to the Federal Trade Commission, these anticompetitive deals cost consumers and taxpayers at least $3.5 billion in higher drug costs every year.
5. Enact Stronger Penalties for Fraud
Terminate exclusivity—a government-awarded monopoly period—from a drug company convicted of fraud.
The Sanders plan holds the pharmaceutical industry accountable when they defraud the American people. Today, nearly every major pharmaceutical company has been convicted of either civil or criminal fraud for violations including off-label promotion, kickbacks, anti-monopoly practices, and Medicare fraud.
Even though the Justice Department has won suits requiring companies to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, the prescription drug companies simply treat those fines as the cost of doing business.
6. Require Pricing and Cost Transparency
Require drug companies to publicly report information that affects drug pricing.
Companies routinely distort the true cost of drug research and development to justify skyrocketing prescription drug prices. Under the Sanders plan, drug makers would be required to report certain price information to the federal government and the public on their products, including the total expenditures on research and development and clinical trials, as well as the portion of their drug development expenses offset by tax credits or paid for by federal grants.
Companies would also be required to report not only the price information charged to federal payers, such as Medicare, but would also have to submit price, profit, and sales information for other countries in which the drug is sold.
86 percent of Americans, including 82 percent of Republicans, think drug companies should be required to release information to the public on how they set their prices.
This is not a partisan issue. Most Americans – Republicans, Democrats, and independents – want Congress to do something about drug prices. Tens of thousands of Americans now spend more than $100,000 a year on prescription medications. Drug costs are out of control because that’s the way pharmaceutical companies want it. Other countries have national health insurance plans that negotiate better prices for all of their residents. In this country, however, drug lobbyists have been able to block all of these common-sense solutions that we must work to pass into law. That is unacceptable and that has got to change.
And, there is this
Sen. Sanders has worked to reduce the pharmaceutical industry's influence over the drug approval process. In 2012, he was the only senator to vote against the Food and Drug Administration user fee bill because it did not do enough to address high prescription drug prices and was too generous to the pharmaceutical industry.
Sen. Sanders was the first member of Congress to take his constituents across the Canadian border to buy their prescription drugs at a fraction of the price they were forced to pay in the United States. He believes importing FDA-approved prescription drugs from Canada and other countries is a safe way to improve competition in the marketplace and reduce the price of prescription drugs.
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/legislation/issue/prescription-drugs
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)like Hillary Clinton did, but instead, wrote a fundraising letter bragging how he refused money from Turing Pharaceuticals and asking donations from his supporters. Admit it, that was a wrongheaded move.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)And what the hell will the FDA or FTC do about it. It is perfectly legal without the kind of legislation Bernie has been pushing.
It was a brilliant move and I (as a big Bernie donator) never received any said letter or email so I call bull on that assertion!
ETA: Hillary doesn't come close to Bernie in legislation written on any issue. I don't mind your choosing to vote for Hillary but please stop with the blatantly FALSE attacks on Bernie. It is really beneath progressives.
artislife
(9,497 posts)BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)Sending fundraising letters to supporters instead of writing letters to the FDA and FTC is, in your opinion, a "brilliant move"? Tell that to the AIDS patients who need Daraprim and no longer can afford it. That $2700 isn't going to buy much for them, will it?
never received any said letter or email so I call bull on that assertion!
Ah...okay. So just because you claim you didn't receive the fundraising e-mail, it doesn't exist. Got it.
Hillary doesn't come close to Bernie in legislation written on any issue.
Well, um, DUH. She hasn't been in Congress for 25+ years. Bernie's King of the Amendments -which makes him a follower, not a leader - and all those written bills have been, but for a few exceptions, DOA. Those are not "false attacks" on Bernie. Those are documented FACTS.
Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)bashings I've seen to date.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)Isn't that what a Senator is supposed to do, propose legislation? The fact that he doesn't get support from those that should support him, like Hillary is exactly why we are where we are as a country.
Now you are dissing Bernie for his hard work? Ridiculous!
jfern
(5,204 posts)without the work of Sanders and Cummings. Another failed hit piece.
http://www.businessinsider.com/martin-shkreli-never-responded-to-bernie-sanders-about-turing-2015-10
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)of a lifesaving AIDS drugs! Missed that?
jfern
(5,204 posts)It came up because Sanders and Cummings were investigating high drug prices. I'm sick and tired of Hillary supporters trying to have Hillary get the credit for the hard work Bernie has done here.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)sgtbenobo
(327 posts)an answer.
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)I understand your frustration. I, too, am sick and tired - of Bernie supporters pooh-poohing his purely political fundraising act as if it's no big deal. I'm certain that had the tables been turned, Bernie supporters would be tearing their hair out and shouting what an opportunist Hillary Clinton is for fundraising on a billionaire's price gouging of a lifesaving AIDS drug instead of actually doing something about it.
artislife
(9,497 posts)
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)That would help answer the question for you.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)Hillary yet?
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)But he's done squat other than to launch an investigation in AUGUST 2015 (why not before? Oh yeah - he's running for president now!) and write letters to the CEOs of other pharmaceutical corporations. Excuse me if I'm not impressed.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)Sen. Sanders has worked to reduce the pharmaceutical industry's influence over the drug approval process. In 2012, he was the only senator to vote against the Food and Drug Administration user fee bill because it did not do enough to address high prescription drug prices and was too generous to the pharmaceutical industry.
Sen. Sanders was the first member of Congress to take his constituents across the Canadian border to buy their prescription drugs at a fraction of the price they were forced to pay in the United States. He believes importing FDA-approved prescription drugs from Canada and other countries is a safe way to improve competition in the marketplace and reduce the price of prescription drugs.
Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)jfern
(5,204 posts)Just like she seems to do.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)oh well I'm sure her friends and contributors will understand that campaign talk
karynnj
(59,504 posts)the Congressional investigation.
PatrickforO
(14,586 posts)Shkreli is a hateful, horrible human being. What's to like about him...for anyone?
EdwardBernays
(3,343 posts)"Since her first bid for Senate in 2000, Clinton has accepted nearly $1 million from drug and health companies and more than $2.7 million from the insurance field and its related sectors, according to an analysis of public records from the Center for Responsive Politics. While the analysis did not include campaign finance figures for the 2016 cycle, some of the same donors and patterns can be seen in Clinton’s lone financial disclosure filed in July.
Contributions tied to some of the same firms that gave to her 2008 presidential campaign appear in the latest disclosure, including donations connected to pharmaceutical companies Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.; and insurers Aetna Inc., MetLife Inc. and Centene Corp., the latter of which is among Clinton’s largest donors this year.
In the course of her 2008 presidential bid, records show that Clinton was the third-largest recipient of campaign donations from drug and health product companies, receiving $738,359 in donations. The industry also contributed $86,875 to her 2000 Senate run, and spent $157,015 supporting her re-election in 2006.
The insurance industry – which includes health insurers and also car, life and property insurance – donated $1,260,400 to her 2008 campaign, making her the third-highest recipient of cash from the industry that year and also in 2006, when she raised $397,110 for her re-election to the Senate. During her first bid for the Senate in 2000, she raised $167,550 from the industry.
She was the second-highest recipient of cash in 2008 from the health services sector and HMOs, receiving $636,670, and the highest earner in 2006, at $183,770. In 2000, she raised $70,575.
More recently, the Clinton Foundation has also benefited from these groups’ donations. Donors and grantors who have given between $1 million and $5 million include Pfizer, the Procter & Gamble Co., Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina and Humana Inc."
Be careful though:
"Pharmaceutical companies and insurers are typically generous with members of both parties, giving slightly more to Republicans. Clare Krusing, press secretary for America's Health Insurance Plans, says its political action committee supports candidates of both parties and, in particular, candidates who support policies aligned with the industry's priorities around affordability.
In recent years, both industries have contributed more to Democrats. Obama was the top recipient during the 2008 presidential election, and again during his re-election in 2012, with his Republican opponents – first Mitt Romney, then Sen. John McCain – receiving slightly less from pharmaceutical companies."
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/10/14/hillary-takes-millions-in-campaign-cash-from-enemies
bowens43
(16,064 posts)
riversedge
(70,267 posts)to key Federal Governmental agencies to hold down prices!! And you have the nerve to call Hillary despicable!@!
