Bernie Sanders Attempt to Have Biden Address high drug costs with NIH Director Appointment fails.

[Jacson6]

Sen. Bernie Sanders tried to rally Democrats and President Joe Biden to do more to lower drug prices just a year after they ordered Medicare to negotiate with pharma. None showed up.

The Vermont independent’s campaign took a blow on Wednesday as Democrats joined forces with Republicans to advance Biden’s pick to lead the National Institutes of Health over Sanders’ objections.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that Sanders chairs voted 15-6 to confirm Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, with five Republicans, including the panel’s ranking member Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, joining all 10 Democrats.

Democrats rejected Sanders’ case, that Bertagnolli had not demonstrated she would “take on the greed and power of the drug companies and health care industry and fight for the transformative changes the NIH needs at this critical moment.”

[link:https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/25/bernie-sanders-drug-price-nih-nominee-00123446|

[bigtree]

1. bullshit way to frame this successful appointment

...especially since this administration has lead, historically, with sucessful challenges to big pharma with the bill allowing the negotiation of some drug prices, and the voluntary response to that pressure from some drug manufacturers.


Biden Administration Announces Savings on 43 Prescription Drugs as Part of Cost-Saving Measures Under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/06/09/biden-administration-announces-savings-43-prescription-drugs-part-cost-saving-measures-president-bidens-inflation-reduction-act.html

[kacekwl]

2. It seems to me

that these measures to lower drug costs always go into effect next year or in two years so it means nothing to people now. Also only covers a select few not the real expensive ones. The pharmaceutical industry needs to be reigned in now not later. Please vote for a veto proof majority so we may have a fighting chance to stay healthy and not go bankrupt.

[lapucelle]

3. He tried to "rally Democrats" by holding up President Biden's nominee for five months?

Sanders held up Bertagnolli’s confirmation hearing for five months after he announced this spring that he’d block Biden’s health care nominees until the president released a “comprehensive” plan to lower drug prices.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/25/bernie-sanders-drug-price-nih-nominee-00123446