Senators don’t believe that Valeant Pharmaceuticals has changed its ways when it comes to charging high prices for its products.
“Valeant and its shareholders may have changed its tune in recent months, but make no mistake,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., during a hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging Thursday.
McCaskill said price increases for older generic drugs have not stopped. She pointed to new data from a financial analyst with Wells Fargo, which estimated that the average price of Valeant’s top 30 products climbed 78 percent in the first quarter of this year from the same period last year.
Valeant CEO J. Michael Pearson and Chief Financial Officer Michael Schiller testified before the panel on Thursday alongside board member and activist investor William Ackman.
“Valeant was too aggressive and I as its leader was also too aggressive,” said Pearson, who will leave the company in a few weeks in the wake of poor stock performance.
But senators were not ready to accept that apology, lashing out at the company’s business practices.
“These drugs have been affordable and easy to get for decades, but after Valeant acquired them, their prices went through the roof,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the committee.
She chided the company for the impact that its model has had on patients. The company can raise the price of the drugs since there is no competition for them.
“Valeant’s monopoly model operates at the expense of real people,” she said in her opening statement.
She pointed to records into the pricing practices obtained by the committee’s investigation. The records showed that Valeant tried to provide access for patients to only pricey drugs.
Collins said that the program was designed to “beneft Valeant the company and to provide patient assistance only ‘as a last resort.'”
Valeant’s stock price has plummeted in response to scrutiny over the price increases and over questionable ties to a specialty pharmacy. Pearson will be replaced in the next few weeks, having been pushed out by the company’s board after the financial problems.
