Senate panel summons price-hiking CEO of Turing Pharma

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate committee has launched an investigation into exorbitant drug price hikes by Turing Pharmaceuticals and three other companies, responding to public anxiety over rising prices for critical medicines.

The Senate's special committee on aging requested documents and information Wednesday from Turing, Valeant Pharmaceuticals and two other drugmakers already under scrutiny for recent price spikes.

Separately, Democrats in the House of Representatives called on their Republican colleagues to summon the Turing and Valeant CEOs to a congressional hearing and issue subpoenas to collect documents from their companies.

Responding to this public outrage, Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have each laid out plans to use federal authority to curb price increases.

Between 2008 through 2014, average prices for the most widely used brand-name drugs jumped 128 percent, according to prescription benefit manager Express Scripts Holding Co. In 2014, the company estimated that total U.S. prescription drug spending increased 13 percent.