This data comes from Cory Booker so you know it’s going to be featured in the campaign
“Since Trump took office in January 2017, the prices of over 2,500 drugs have increased by at least double digits and almost 40 have increased by triple digits or more, according to the new analysis released by Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J. ”
“Booker’s office examined the 10 largest U.S. based pharmaceutical companies — Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Gilead, AbbVie, Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Celgene and Mylan — and how they plan to use their tax windfalls. The study, based on 4th quarter earnings calls, press releases and public statements, shows that in its early days, the new tax law has been almost entirely a boon to shareholders. Five drug companies alone have announced $45 billion in stock buybacks — accounting for 21% of the largest stock buybacks announced this year.
Like other companies, drug companies saw a permanent tax rate cut from 35% to 21%. But they also benefited disproportionately from the significant reduction in the taxes on repatriating foreign cash held overseas. Five of the top 10 companies on the S&P 500 with the most overseas cash in 2016 were pharmaceutical companies.
So these companies reaped major windfalls from the new tax law and they could be spending it any way they want — keeping it for shareholders, reinvesting in research and development or, in a rare opportunity to help consumers without hurting shareholders, reversing this trend of constant price increases. The quickest way to reward shareholders is to announce stock buybacks, and for the most part that’s what they did.
What about drug prices? Booker’s analysis suggests that nothing has been done. None of the 10 companies said they planned to make any pricing reduction announcements in the wake of the tax law. In fact, drug prices continue to climb. One survey of pricing data showed 116 price increases by Pfizer alone. Pfizer’s CEO, Ian Read, told shareholders on their most recent earnings call, “I don’t see that the pricing risk has dramatically changed from where it was 10 years ago or five years ago.”
