Hearing explores how drug companies stifle innovation, prioritize profits

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce today held a hearing to examine how pharmaceutical companies are putting “profits over consumers,” highlighting how profits made from drug sales are concentrated around only a few drugs with no competition. “The bottom line is this: drug manufacturers are gaming the system to make more money at consumers’ expense,” said Chairwoman Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. “And that has to stop.” Witnesses for the hearing were from Rutgers Institute for Information Policy and Law, Emory University School of Law, the Association for Accessible Medicines, and Patients for Affordable Drugs.