Senators urge action to block drastic drug price hikes
Committee investigators concluded that Turing and several other companies "engaged in price gouging ... to make massive profits from decades-old life-saving therapies."
The 131-page report comes as lawmakers and pharmaceutical executives try to gauge President-elect Donald Trump's interest in government intervention to curb rising drug prices, a leading health care concern among patients.
While campaigning, Trump said he would support efforts to allow Medicare — the massive government health plan for seniors — to directly negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, a step long opposed by the pharmaceutical lobby.
The committee report draws similarities between the tactics of companies such as Turing and Valeant Pharmaceuticals and investment firms that profit by buying under-valued stocks and pushing up prices.
The tactics seemed to confirm some of the public's worst fears about pharmaceutical companies: that they are more Wall Street-driven investment vehicles than actual makers of medicines.