House committee report shines light on pharma’s pricing, business practices

Fourteen leading U.S. drug companies from 2016 to 2020 spent $577 billion on stock buybacks and dividends, $56 billion more than they spent on research and development over the same period, according to a report released Thursday by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

For the same time period, the report notes that the companies’ top executives earned more as they raised drug prices, with salaries growing by 14% and compensation totaling $3.2 billion. In addition, findings show research and development budgets were spent “on finding ways to suppress generic and biosimilar competition while continuing to raise prices, rather than on innovative research.”