Statement from Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, on the FDA’s approval of Biogen’s new $56,000 treatment for Alzheimer’s: 

The hefty price tag for Biogen’s new Alzheimer’s drug proves that when drug corporations have monopoly power to set prices, they will set them ridiculously high. Biogen is selling false hopes, rather than clinical results, to desperate families — but still stands to make a profit. Already since the announcement of the FDA’s approval, Biogen’s share price has skyrocketed.

The fact that the FDA doesn’t listen to it’s advisors is another reason that Congress needs to step in: as long as profit drives this process, companies will keep exploiting patients. That’s why we need the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, to ensure fair prices and remove the incentives for this kind of raw price-gouging.

Even if more clinical evidence of its efficacy were available, the price tag alone would prevent too many people from being able to afford this medicine. Everyone wants new cures and treatments for intractable illnesses like Alzheimers, but as long drug corporations have total control over prices, innovation won’t save lives.

New drugs can’t help people when we can’t afford them. Congress must pass the Lower Drug Costs Now Act to put an end to blatant price gouging, hold pharmaceutical corporations accountable, and lower drug prices, now.