Sen. Sanders: Make Drug Plan or I’ll Hold Up NIH Nominee

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., says he will not advance President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH) until the administration produces a “comprehensive” plan to lower prescription drug prices.

“I will oppose all nominations until we have a very clear strategy on the part of the government … as to how we’re going to lower the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs,” Sanders told The Washington Post.

As the chairman of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Sanders determines when nominees are reviewed for positions in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Biden administration will therefore be unable to confirm current and future health agency nominations without Sanders’ support.

Last month Biden nominated Monica Bertagnolli, a cancer surgeon who leads the National Cancer Institute, to the top NIH post. Bertagnolli was not among the three officials Sanders had recommended to the White House for the position and he would not comment to the Post on whether he would support her nomination.

In a statement on Monday, the administration said that the president shares the Vermont senator’s concerns on drug pricing, “which is why he signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, the most consequential law addressing the high cost of prescription drugs.”

Sounding the alarm on the nation’s drug prices – which eclipse those of other countries – federal officials, researchers and advocates have repeatedly warned that they are harming patients and driving up federal spending.

“High prescription drug prices create affordability challenges for patients and the health care system,” an HHS report released last year read. The report tracked prescription drug price increases between July 2021 and July 2022 and found that the prices for more than 1,200 products outstripped inflation with an average price increase of more than 31%.

On its website, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said it is committed to lowering costs for patients and blamed pharmaceutical benefit managers and other intermediaries for drug price hikes.

“We have a responsibility to not just develop treatments and cures, but to also help patients access them,” the trade organization says on its website.

The Biden administration’s efforts to bring down drug prices include policies in the Inflation Reduction Act that prohibited companies from charging seniors more than $35 a month for insulin, restricted annual Medicare out-of-pocket drug costs to $2,000 and penalized drug companies that raised prices faster than inflation.

Earlier this month, drug manufacturer Merck sued the Biden administration over a policy contained in the legislative package that allowed Medicare to negotiate the prices of some drugs. The pharmaceutical giant argued that the policy is a form of “extortion” that would deter research and development.