A U.S. Senate committee has launched a bipartisan investigation into enormous hikes in drug prices made by Turing Pharmaceuticals, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and two other companies. The Special Committee on Aging has requested documents and information from the drug makers, which are already under public scrutiny for raising prices precipitously.
The committee called specifically for a meeting with the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli. Shkreli caused public outrage after his company raised the price of the drug Daraprim by more than 5,000%. The drug, which Turing acquired in August, is the only U.S.-approved treatment for toxoplasmosis, a serious parasitic infection that can affect pregnant women and patients with HIV.
The other two companies being investigated are Retrophin Inc. and Rodelis Therapeutics. Retrophin raised the price of a kidney drug, Thiola, from $1.50 per tablet to $30 per tablet. Rodelis raised the price on a tuberculosis drug by more than 2,000%.
In a separate development, Democrats in the House of Representatives called on Republican colleagues to summon the Turing and Valeant executives to a Congressional hearing and subpoena documents from the companies. Both firms have refused to turn over documents to Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, which called for an investigation of drug prices in September.
Valeant is already being investigated by several members of Congress for its business strategy, which involves buying smaller drug developers in order to own certain medications and then raising their prices.
Turing and Valeant have both received multiple subpoenas from federal prosecutors seeking information about drug pricing and other policies.
Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) say a hearing on this issue is scheduled for Dec. 9. Collins chairs the aging committee and McCaskill is the ranking Democrat.
"We need to get to the bottom of why we're seeing huge spikes in drug prices that seemingly have no relationship to research and development costs," said McCaskill, in a statement. She said that some of the increases looked like "little more than price gouging."
