In oversight inquiry, key Democrat seeking 10 years’ worth of pricing, sales, research data from drug companies

This story first appeared in D.C. Diagnosis, STAT’s weekly newsletter about the politics and policy of health and medicine, which relaunched today. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox. 

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat chairing the House Oversight Committee, put the pharmaceutical industry on notice this week when he launched an investigation into the industry’s drug pricing tactics. Until now, we didn’t know much more than the names of the 12 companies he sent letters to. But I dug around for more information ahead of the committee’s first hearing on the issue, on Jan. 29. Here’s what I learned:

• Cummings is asking for a slew of information. STAT got the skinny on what’s in the letters, and it’s a lot. Representatives from two companies involved in the probe said he’s seeking 10 years worth of sales, revenue, pricing, rebate, discount, and commercialization data; research and development expenses; information on patents and indications; employee compensation and bonus information; information on each company’s interactions with federal agencies; and details of each company’s contracts with PBMs.
• More drug companies are likely to be investigated. Cummings’ probe already encompasses the majority of the country’s largest drug makers, but he’s not done yet. “There’ll be more,” Cummings told me last week.
• The probe will likely expand beyond drug makers. Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the highest ranking Democrat on the Oversight health subcommittee, told STAT last week he believes Cummings will expand the probe. “There’s all kinds of middlemen and women in this and a lot of them make a lot of money,” Krishnamoorthi added.
• Other committees are gearing up to investigate drug makers. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo), the newly minted chair of the Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee, told your author last week she plans to haul drug industry CEOs before her committee, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) broke the news Friday that the Senate Finance Committee will also lead its own investigation “into high prescription drug prices and questionable ‘rebates’ to pharmacy benefit managers that don’t directly benefit consumers.”
• One key thing we still don’t know: The House Oversight Committee still hasn’t announced who is going to be called to testify in a little over a week. I posed the question to Cummings last week. His response? “It all depends.”

On its signature drug pricing pitch, the White House is out on its own

Republicans on Capitol Hill are willing to back President Trump on everything from his 4 a.m. tweets to his multibillion-dollar wall. But when my colleague Lev Facher and I asked them what they thought about his plan to tie what Medicare pays for drugs to what other countries pay, key members of the GOP weren’t exactly singing its praises. Of the dozen lawmakers we surveyed this past week, only one or two really expressed any positive ideas about it.

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