Letters to Big Pharma: Stop Increasing Prices in a Pandemic
Public Citizen Asks Top Corporations To Freeze Price Increases
AbbVie Allergan Amgen AstraZeneca Bayer Boehringer Ingelheim Bristol Myers Squibb Eli Lilly Gilead Sciences GlaxoSmithKline Johnson and Johnson Merck and Co Mylan Novartis Novo Nordisk Pfizer Roche Sanofi Takeda Teva Novartis Response Pfizer Response Roche Response Teva Response
On April 27, 2020, Public Citizen asked the heads of 20 major pharmaceutical corporations to stop increasing medicine prices during the COVID-19 pandemic. The letters describe how the corporations have increased prices on existing drugs in recent years, noting that the practice “contributes nothing to innovation.”
The corporations contacted include AbbVie, Allergan, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Mylan, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Takeda and Teva. After acquisitions, they were the 20 largest pharmaceutical corporations by revenue in 2018.
UPDATE
By June 30, 2020, Public Citizen had received responses from only four corporations. None committed to stopping price increases. See attached PDFs for their full responses.