>> The House Oversight and Reform Committee recently grilled Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day over
the price gouging that's currently occurring in regard to Truvada.
This is medication that would help prevent the spread of HIV.
And, of course, Americans are paying way more for it than anyone else in any other country.
So let's take a listen to a Republican who thinks this is all fine and dandy.
>> Mr. O'Day, do you make brentuximab?
Do you know what brentuximab is?
>> I do not, I'm sorry, Congressman.
>> Brentuximab vedotin is the drug that I took when I was suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma.
A drug that was created, built, manufactured, developed, designed, created by a private
company that made a lot of money.
And I'm really glad they did.
I hope they make a lot more.
But to sit here and attack the capitalistic system that produces and distributes medicines
that's saving lives around the world, I mean, it is just offensive.
I mean, I just cannot possibly understand why we're spending time sitting here, why
listen to people lecturing companies about making money.
I hope you make a lot of money.
But this absurd attack on profit being evil.
When will it go down, how much cash on hand does Apple have?
$245 billion.
How much has Apple done to go cure health?
It is a good thing that Apple makes a crap ton of money making these things.
So that we can have them and distribute them and use them, and use them for great additions
and benefits to the world.
And it is the same thing in the medicine.
>> That was representative Chip Roy, he's a Republican.
And he thinks that it's okay to do the type of price gouging that's happening right now.
Because in his eyes, this is an attack on capitalism, except it's not.
Because if this were true capitalism, then the research and development for these medications
wouldn't be funded by us, the US taxpayers, because that's exactly what's happening right
now.
We subsidize the research and development for these drugs.
And then these pharmaceutical companies reap the benefits, make their profits, and price
gouge to the point where Americans literally die after their hard earned money goes to
the research and development of these drugs.
Now, that's just my commentary, it's accurate commentary, you should look into it.
But I just wanna tell you how much price gouging happens, especially when it comes to drugs
like Truvada.
Truvada can cost $20,000 a year for patients in the United States, while a similar drug
is available for $60 a year in other countries.
So I just would like to say that Representative Chip Roy is a terrible human being who does
not value human life.
He values the profit making abilities of pharmaceutical companies way more than the lives lives of
Americans.
Now with that said, AOC, of course, always comes correct, and she responded to this.
Let's hear what she had to say.
>> We heard earlier today, an impassioned plea about profits, and about how a corporation
like Apple should be able to enjoy that.
Well, I know a woman, her name is Amy Villela, and her daughter died because she went to
a hospital and told them that she wasn't insured.
And they said come again in a month when you do have insurance.
Well, her blood clot didn't wait a month.
Her daughter died at 22 years old.
What Amy says what Miss Villela says is this is a commodity.
Her daughter's life was not.
People's lives are not commodities.
When we talk about economics, there's something known as a demand curve with elasticity.
And with every other commodity, you can say, how much is this phone worth to you?
And you can say, $100, $200, you can buy a Nokia phone, you can not have a phone at all.
But you cannot ask the question how much will you pay to be alive, how much will you pay
to live?
Because the answer is everything, the answer is you will pay $10, you will pay $1,000,
you will go into debt.
You will do anything to live.
And that is what makes the price of medicine different than the price of an iPhone.
>> That's what an uncorrupted politician looks like.
Imagine if we had 535 of them in Congress actually representing us instead of their
corporate donors.
I can't believe that that guy cried defending his corporate donors.
So understand that he didn't cry because my God, a good drug saved my life.
We all are in favor of drugs, we're all in favor of science, and I had a drug save my
life.
But listen to what Ana just told you.
In the case of the drug that she mentioned, they sell it in other countries for $60 and
still make a profit.
$60 a year, they wouldn't sell it if they didn't make a profit.
They sell it here in America for $20,000.
Is that because that's capitalism?
No, it's crony capitalism cuz they've captured the government by bribing people like that
Republican politician that you saw.
And honestly, a lot of Democratic politicians, too.
That's why AOC gets under their skin cuz she doesn't take bribes.
So she's allowed to actually call it what it is.
And I love the cheer for Amy Vilela who's her fellow just Democrat ran in Nevada.
She didn't wind up winning.
You can see Knock Down the House, a documentary about them.
But when Amy talked about her daughter, and she died because they wouldn't treat her.
Understand Amy is not just speaking for her daughter.
And she explained in the movie and in her campaign, for 30,000 Americans who die every
year cuz they don't have insurance.
Think about how brutal that is, while that guy is Is crying for extra profits for insurance
and drug company executives.
>> And Gilead, by the way, has made $36 billion in revenue since 2004 off of Truvada.
So I just wanna make sure you guys know the numbers because they are profiting handsomely
off of the death of people who cannot afford this drug.
>> How do Republicans keep brilliantly executing starting their arguments at a false point
and just running from there?
Nobody ever says that we do not want profits in this country.
We are a capitalist country.
I've called myself always a compassionate capitalist because you need a capitalist system
to innovate.
And you also need to have a damn heart.
It's very simple to do, no one's saying no profits.
People are saying, if people are dying, and your drug can save lives, and you're funded
by tax payers, you don't need $36 billion of profit, 5 billion would be pretty amazing.
And I even got 31 billion that you can use to subsidize helping save lives if you actually
care about that, so it's so frustrating.
Secondly is also as frustrating as always, dude's named stuff like Chip Roy that say
stuff like this.
First of all, two first names, very annoying, gets under your skin.
>> And also Chip's not even really a first name.
So his first name is not a first name, and there's Roy, should be the first name, should
be Roy Chip, and still would be a very annoying name.
>> But it's these white dudes that only care about their profits and themselves.
I was saved by a drug, so please go ahead and make billions and not save others.
>> Yeah.
>> It's only about himself, I could afford that drug.
So please save other people.
It's completely insane, and it's also a lie.
And an argument that that conservatives always get to make somehow without being called out
on, that capitalism is this pure system in our country, it is not.
They are all socialists for the things they want.
>> Yes.
>> Donald Trump's a socialist because he's in favor of controlling some drug prices.
He's in favor of subsidizing farmers when his plans go south and their soy bean prices
go up, or the ability to bring that in.
And so he subsidizes that, so he doesn't lose elections.
Tariffs in general are a non free market principle, and they're fine with that, because it helps
the economy, it helps business.
But when it help save lives, people not getting AIDS, nope,
>> Yeah.
>> Where do you get this mix of bananas logic?
>> And so Naomi Klein.
>> I'm sorry I yelled so much.
>> No, I like it, I like it.
>> So Naomi Klein has the best line about this.
They privatized the gains and socialized the cost.
And so this is a perfect example of it.
So we paid the cost of developing a lot of these drugs in the universities that we fund,
etc.
It actually makes no sense at all, then to hand it off to companies and go okay, now
you make all the gains.
But wait a minute, the taxpayers paid for, not all, but a lot of those drugs, and development
of those drugs.
So, why didn't we get the profit?
>> The CDC has patents on that drug, they get into drugs that became that market labeled
Truvada.
They're just not claiming their patents.
>> Yeah.
>> So they're like let them have more billions, even though we could subsidize it.
>> Imagine if we had a progressive president, and he said, I now claim the patents on behalf
of the American people.
>> Easy.
>> So and by the way- >> And that's the executive order.
>> Yes.
>> And by the way, get a load of how easy it would be.
He said, you know what?
You guys, we paid for the cost of that.
If you live in Nebraska, Kentucky, Bronx, it doesn't matter, you paid for it.
>> You know what, you guys keep making the drug, you keep half the profits.
The other half is gonna come to the American taxpayers, and I wouldn't give it to them
in the form of a check.
What, are you not going to make the drug?
No, you're still going to make it for half the profit, right?
You'd make it for a quarter of the profit.
It's not like they're gonna say no, I don't want the profit, right?
And you can't make a case about justice.
We paid for the drugs.
We, as the American people, financed the science that got that patent.
Okay, and then nobody's saying that you take down the capitalist system overall.
But look at the example he gave, Apple, so I've got an iPhone, it's not like I'm opposed
to Apple.
No one's saying burn Apple down.
What they're saying is, hey, Apple paid no taxes last year, why?
Why is Amazon and Apple paying no tax at all?
You know why?
Crony capitalism.
You're paying more.
I don't care if you're a Republican, Democrat, it doesn't matter.
Your family is paying more in taxes than Apple and Amazon.
I'm not saying don't make an iPhone.
I'm saying pay your taxes.
And how do they not pay their taxes?
They legally bribe guys like Chip Roy.
They go give me a loophole, cut my taxes, give me a loophole.
And by the way, you know why prices are so high for drugs?
Cuz the government is not allowed to negotiate with drug companies.
No capitalist system would allow that, this is not capitalism.
>> And the new iPhones cost like $1,000, and they don't cost that much.
But they can charge it because iPhones don't save lives.
If they did, you could maybe make a good argument morally, we can maybe charge less for the
iPhone.