Statement from Margarida Jorge, head of Lower Drug Prices Now, on the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into the pharmaceutical industry:

We applaud the House Oversight Committee for its three-year investigation, which lays out in detail how Big Pharma’s profit-driven practices are making it harder for families nationwide to afford their prescription drugs, especially in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic.

In this year alone, drug companies raised the prices of over 1,000 medicines — and most increases exceeded the rate of inflation. It is simply indefensible that an industry reaping record profits retains monopoly control to set and keep drug prices high at the expense of families’ health and economic security. Unaffordable prices are keeping life-saving medications out of reach for millions of Americans every year.

Democrats have promised to lower drug prices, and the Build Back Better Act would take steps to deliver on that promise by lowering costs, allowing negotiations in Medicare for the first time, and holding drug corporations accountable for price-gouging. The Senate must not delay in passing the Build Back Better Act before the holidays so the American people can finally afford the prescriptions they need.