Opinion: PhRMA’s talking points shouldn’t derail the Pelosi drug pricing bill
Two of the most innovative pharmaceutical corporations in the world have their headquarters on opposite banks of the Rhine as it flows through Basel, Switzerland. Ranked No. 2 and 4 in total worldwide sales, Roche makes Herceptin and other important cancer treatments while Novartis recently brought to market the immune therapy Kymriah and the gene therapy Zolgensma. Sanofi (7) is in Paris, Glaxo Smith Kline (6) and AstraZeneca (14) are in London, and Takeda (20) is based in Osaka.
The pharmaceutical industry’s impressive geographic diversity is nowhere to be seen in talking points distributed by PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry’s trade association, that Congressional staffers shared with me. The talking points form the basis of desperate efforts by lobbyists and industry allies to discredit House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug price negotiation bill, so this omission is a telling one.
