One of the most important provisions in the build back better agenda.
The social spending bill that just got blocked by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin
was the notion that maybe, just maybe this country can lower pharmaceutical drugs,
lower the cost of pharmaceutical drugs.
It was supposed to allow for medicare for
instance to directly negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
Something that the medicare system is actually banned from doing as we speak.
But if you have a democrat, a democrat senator Joe Manchin,
just clearly stating no, I have problems with this bill, okay.
And by the way before Mansion noted that he was gonna block it and
vote no on the social spending bill.
It had already been stripped of so many of these important provisions,
including the provision meant to lower the cost of prescription drugs.
So, it's not just about Mansion, there are several democrats in the senate,
several democrats in the House of Representatives who are bribed,
legally bribed by pharmaceutical companies to screw you over.
To ensure that our medicare system overpays for pharmaceutical drugs to
ensure that you and I over pay and get price gouged from pharmaceutical drugs.
So, the corruption certainly impacts both sides, but for the purposes of this
discussion, why don't we focus on the type of corruption that we see with Joe Manchin
and then tie that into how cancer patients are getting screwed over by it.
So, CNBC shockingly in one of their print articles,
decided to touch on the kind of corruption that has impacted Joe Manchin and
his decision to block the social spending bill.
They write that Manchin's leadership PAC,
Country Roads received 17 contributions from corporations in October and
19 last month according to a CNBC analysis of federal election commission filings.
None of the four months prior to October saw as many corporate contributions.
Wow, I wonder why could it be that all of these corporations were
terrified at the thought that maybe, just maybe the democrats
could pass legislation that materially improves our lives.
Now, who did these donors include, well included financial
giants such as American Express and Goldman Sachs, aerospace and
defense leader Lockheed martin, health insurance companies.
UnitedHealth Group and Blue cross Blue Shield and
natural gas companies Cnx resources.
The PAC raised over $110,000 in November alone, and
so this corruption and corrupt politicians like Joe Manchin enable the pain and
suffering that so many Americans are experiencing today.
Especially when it comes to our privatized health care system,
especially when it comes to pharmaceutical drugs, so let's talk about that.
In fact, I wanna share a very specific story, we've heard about the EpiPen, okay.
Manchin's daughter was the CEO of Mylan pharmaceuticals when she decided to
create a monopoly for the EpiPen and price gouge the hell out of Americans.
But there's another story that I want to share with you all because pharmaceutical
companies monopolizing certain drugs, lifesaving drugs is not rare.
But there are some stories that I think a lot of people don't know about,
haven't heard about.
And this one strikes close to home, especially since someone very close
to me just got diagnosed with blood cancer and needs this specific drug
every single day in their life in order to live, in order to survive.
But there's a monopoly for this drug, let's talk about those details.
So there's Celgene, Celgene is one of these pharmaceutical companies and
Celgene is behind a blood cancer medication known as Revlimid.
Revlimid is a drug that helps with people who are suffering from multiple myeloma,
for instance, it could help slow the process of leukemia.
It is an incredibly important pharmaceutical drug and
does help to keep people alive.
The only problem is you're not gonna find a generic version of that drug.
There is a very aggressive effort by Celgene to maintain
patents to prevent generic drugs from being produced.
In fact, Celgene has been dealing with multiple lawsuits for
many years as a result of its antitrust practices, okay.
Now, when Celgene corporation first started making the drug
Revlimid to treat multiple myeloma back in 2006,
the price was $6,195 for just 21 capsules a month's supply.
But by the time David Mitchell started taking Revlimid in
November of 2010, Celgene had bumped the price up,
about $8,000 a month, but that wasn't enough for them.
When he took his last month's worth of pills in April of 2016,
the sticker price had reached $10,691, that's for one month.
But by March of 2018, the list price had reached $16,691 just one month for
that drug, no generic versions available.
Now in Maine, between 2015 and 2020,
the price of this cancer drug, Revlimid soared from
$185,574 per year to a whopping $267,583 a year.
Which is why the AARP, which is also a lobby representing elderly or
senior citizens in this country was urging absolutely urging Congress to
pass Biden's social spending package.
Because so many of our senior citizens across this country have experienced
the price gouging that takes place, even with the wildly popular Medicare program.
There are senior citizens who are still hit with insanely
high copays related to their pharmaceutical drugs.
Especially if we're talking about a pharmaceutical drug that does not have
generic versions available because these companies monopolize the market.
Now, the pharmaceutical company is able to charge whatever it wants,
because if there are no other competitors, if there are no generic options.
Well, if you've got cancer and you need this drug, you're gonna
probably pay whatever you need to pay in order to get your hands on it,
you might sell your home, you might borrow against your home.
You might go into bankruptcy, just go into debt in an effort to just stay alive,
that's what this country does to people.
It's just fantastic really the land of opportunity.
And so, Celgene has gamed the system by preventing other
drug manufacturers from getting the materials that they
would need in order to test the generic version of the drug.
So let me tell you how they're doing this, so
Revlimid is derived from a drug originally prescribed to treat morning sickness.
That was banned in 1962 because of its connection to birth defects.
To reintroduce it as a cancer treatment, Celgene had to put strict controls
known as REMS on distribution to ensure that it was not taken by pregnant women.
So, for instance, if you are prescribed this drug, you have to fill out a survey
every six months, making it abundantly clear that you're not pregnant.
That you're not planning on getting pregnant because of the birth defects
associated with taking this drug, it's one of the side effects, okay.
And so, what Celgene has done is they have used that excuse,
that regulation meant to keep people safe as a way of essentially
preventing other competitors from getting their hands on the materials
necessary to develop their own generic version of the drug.
Generic drugmakers need supplies of brand name drugs to conduct tests and
prove to the Food and Drug Administration that their version works.
Celgene appears to be using REMS to keep generic drugmakers from getting
the samples they need, and that's according to what the FDA said.
Now, is our federal government really doing anything about this?
I mean, did they do anything about the fact that there was a monopoly for
the EpiPen and that monopoly led to the price gouging carried out
by Mylan pharmaceuticals under the leadership of Joe Manchin's daughter,
they didn't do anything about that.
They had their cutesy little hearings because we all know,
Congress loves to have hearings.
We're mad at Mark Zuckerberg, let's do a hearing, it seems like some of our
constituents are upset about being price gouged, let's do some hearings.
Let's just give our constituents the illusion of doing something without
actually doing a damn thing, that's what Congress does day in day out.
That's all they do, okay, that's all they do, this has been going on forever,
just keeps going, there isn't even a fine, there are no consequences.
They're able to do this often times because there are patent laws and
certain things that allow them to do it, okay.
So to be clear, as far as we know, Celgene hasn't even done anything illegal,
Mylan pharmaceuticals might have done something illegal in regard to the EpiPen.
But in this regard, Celgene's just taking advantage of the laws that are out there,
they're able to use those laws to their advantage.
In fact, fairly recently, not recently, this was an interview from years ago,
but the former CEO of Celgene went on Bloomberg and understand when it comes
to Bloomberg and CNBC, these are not news networks meant to inform you.
Bloomberg and CNBC is all about helping investors decide whether or
not they should invest in certain companies.
So pay close attention to the tone of this interview, the line of questioning because
the reporter here, the anchor here isn't concerned about the price gouging.
Isn't concerned about the monopoly, isn't concerned about the cancer patients who
might not be able to pay for this life saving drug.
The Bloomberg reporter here just has this line of questioning to help investors
decide whether or not the monopoly is gonna last long enough so
they get a nice little return on their investment.
So, here's an interview from 2012 featuring the former CEO of Celgene and
look at him bragging about how he's monopolized the market.
>> Let me ask you about Revlimid, I'm gonna jump right in because that's your
top seller, big chunk of your revenues.
But I think put out a lawsuit in terms of defending it against patent protection.
How worried about are you about generic competition anytime soon for this one.
>> We feel very good about intellectual property estate,
we've built it over 15 years and so we will very vigorously defended.
We've got composition of matter patents, polymorphic patents, use patents.
We have a very strong estate, will vigorously defend and
very confident of our position.
So easily years before we see any kind of generic.
We believe our patents will hold till 2027 on the issued patents, so
we feel good about it.
We're in litigation, we can't get into the specifics.
But we're confident about the investment we've made and we've made the right
investment feel very good about this quality of our intellectual property.
>> She's so proud, so proud, bragging rights.
I mean, we're don't worry investors, we're gonna deliver for you.
And if cancer patients don't have the money to pay for
this life saving drug that there were price gouging them on.
Well, they can go ahead and die, they can go ahead and die, who cares?
Maybe there'll be some mutual aid to help them out, but
other than that Congress ain't helping you out.
Other than that you think these pharmaceutical companies that have a clear
profit motive are gonna help you out.
You think they care whether you live or die,
you're just bragging about it right there.
Who knows how many Americans have already died of blood cancer
because they couldn't afford this one drug that is obviously
unattainable because there's no generic version, okay.
And this company can charge whatever it wants.
Now, this reminded me a lot of why I get so furious with Congress and how they just
do these hearings over and over again and nothing results from the hearings.
I was curious to see if Congress ever held a hearing on Revlimit on
what's taking place right now.
And I did come across a statement a moment during one of these hearings featuring
Representative Peter Welch and he's got a lot of strong statements here.
So let's hear what he has to say, and then I'll tell you what happened afterwards.
>> There is a very clear strategy on the part of the pharmaceutical industry
to boost its prices in the place where it can, and
that's the United States of America.
Ours is literally the only country where the government
won't protect its citizens from price gouging.
Now, the profits, nothing wrong with profits but
price gouging profits, yes.
In tactics used that are tried and true by the pharmaceutical industry
to extend the life of that monopoly that they get granted by this
Congress by making an ever so slight change in the medication itself.
In claiming that entitles them to extend that patent,
where you have companies that are charging $70,000 for a drug.
It helps, but who can pay that?
>> Not a lot of people, Congressman Welch, not a lot of people,
he knows that apparently.
But what did he do about it afterwards,
what did our Democratic lawmakers do about it afterwards?
They claim to be so different from the Republican Party,
they claim to wanna represent the little guy.
They claim to be disgusted with the greed of wall street and these pharmaceutical
companies until they get legalized bribes from these corporations and
these pharmaceutical companies and the private health industry and all of that.
As soon as they get that money, as soon as that check clears all of a sudden, wow,
they forget, they forget, all of a sudden the price gouging doesn't matter.
All of a sudden the pain and suffering of Americans, not that important.
I'm sick of your damn hearings, do something, do something, but
they won't, they won't.
And to be quite honest with you, they don't really feel the need to do a damn
thing, they'll pay lip service to these issues.
They'll talk about these issues and they're campaigning cuz hey, they really
do wanna just try to make themselves stand out from the Republican Party.
But when push comes to shove, they don't do a damn thing and
then they use all sorts of excuses, what could we do?
We only had a simple majority in the Senate, what could we do?
They know they could do something, they don't fight for it cuz they don't want it.
Now, let's get back to Joe Manchin because Joe Manchin zone
family has profited handsomely off of drug company monopolies.
So let's get back to his daughter who should be investigated
by the Biden administration if Biden genuinely cared about pushing for
his own agenda, but of course he won't do that.
Sen, Joe Manchin's daughter worked with Pfizer inc in 2016 to monopolize,
I'm sorry to monopolize and raise the price of the EpiPen while
the company gave generous campaign donations to Joe Manchin.
And by the way, before it became by artists, Mylan
pharmaceuticals was the largest campaign contributor to Manchin's campaign and
five election cycles.
He just loves, he loves that campaign money man, he loves it.
And we know his daughter loves to price gouge herself because that made
her tremendously wealthy.
In 2010, the company's PAC and
its employees were the largest donors to Manchin's first Senate run.
And Viatris is the number one career donor to mansion,
including past donations from Mylan.
In Manchin's second Senate election in 2016,
Mylan was the second highest contributor to the West Virginia senator.
So I never wanna hear about, well what could Manchin do, what can Manchin do?
I mean, he's got these ideological differences from mainstream Democrats,
what could Manchin do?
He's from West Virginia where mainstream media will have you
believe consists of constituents who love to be price
gouged on pharmaceutical drugs, what could Manchin do?
It's the freaking corruption, that's it, it's the corruption,
we live under corporate rule.
Congress doesn't represent us, they don't feel the need to,
our voice is nothing compared to the legalized bribes they receive.
The only time we've seen anything, any effort to actually represent
the American people is what we had organized outside pressure,
organized outside pressure that led to the new deal, for instance,
as flawed as it might have been, okay.
It wasn't perfect, but you think that FDR, his administration and Congress
at that time would have done a damn thing if there weren't worker strikes.
If there wasn't organized pressure, they wouldn't have done a damn thing,
I don't know.
I mean, I'm obviously speculating but
organized labor played a huge role in getting things done.
And if you think that all we need to do is cast our ballot for more democrats and
then just sit back and hope that they're gonna represent us.
I promise you'll be disappointed over and over and
over again cuz we're competing with corporate interests.
And they've got a lot of money, unless we apply pressure, we're gonna keep
running into the same problem over again and our family members members
will die because they can't afford the drugs that they're being price gouged on.
What a great country.