Big Pharma is abusing patents, and it’s hurting Americans By Garrett Johnson and Wayne T. Brough for CNN Business Perspectives Updated 7:53 AM EDT, Fri September 13, 2019 Hauwa Ahmed is a research assistant for Democracy and Government at the Center. --Big Pharma cannot tell you how long the alleged protection of COVID-19 vaccines will last.--Big Pharma has zero data on young children's response … Ahead of its hearing on drug pricing in February 2019, the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance sent aletter, Aimee Picchi, “Big Pharma ushers in new year by raising prices of more than 1,000 drugs,” CBS News, January 2, 2019, available at, William Rice, Frank Clemente, and Kayla Kitson, “Bad Medicine: How GOP Tax Cuts Are Enriching Drug Companies, Leaving Workers & Patients Behind” (Washington: American for Tax Fairness, 2018), available at, American Diabetes Association, “Statistics about Diabettes,” available at, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Type 1 Diabetes,” available at, Ed Silverman, “One-quarter of people with diabetes in the U.S. are rationing their insulin,” Stat, June 18, 2019, available at, Ritu Prasad, “The human cost of insulin in America,” BBC News, March 14, 2019, available at, Office of Congresswoman Diana DeGette, “Skyrocketing Insulin Cost: Congressional Diabetes Caucus Highlights Need and Ways to Bring Prices Down,” Press release, November 1, 2018, available at, Antroinette Worsham, “Testimony Before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform Hearing on ‘Examining the Actions of Drug Companies in Raising Prescription Drug Prices,’” January 29, 2019, available at, Robin Cressman and others, “’We Either Buy Insulin or We Die,’”, Forester McClatchey, “A Brief History of Insulin,” Beyond Type 1, October 31, 2016, available at, Xinyang Hua, Natalie Carvalho, and Michelle Tew, “Expenditures and Prices of Antihyperglycemic Medications in the United States: 2002-2013,”, Michael Nedelman, “Amid uproar over high drug prices, Eli Lilly introduces generic insulin at half price of brand-name Humalog,” CNN, March 4, 2019, available at, Dzintars Gotham, Melissa J. Barber, and Andrew Hill, “Production costs and potential prices for biosimilars of human insulin and insulin analogues,”, Chairman Charles E. 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Schwartz and Steven Woloshin , “Medical Marketing in the United States, 1997-2016,”, Aimee Picchi, “Drug prices in 2019 are surging, with hikes at 5 times inflation,” CBS News, July 1, 2019, available at, Tami Luhby, “Drug makers resist pressure from Washington on drug prices,” CNN, January, 3, 2019, available at, Allergan, “Allergan Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2018 Financial Results,” January 29, 2019, available at, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, “Teva Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Financial Results,” Press release, February 13, 2019, available at, Richard Knox, “$1,000 Pill for Hepatitis C Spurs Debate Over Drug Prices,” NPR, December 30, 2013, available at, Madeline Twomey, “Comprehensive Reform to Lower Prescription Drug Prices,” Center for American Progress, January 29, 2019, available at, Infohep, “Hepatitis C treatment factsheet: Sofosbuvir, U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, “Wyden-Grassley Sovaldi Investigation Finds Revenue-Driven Pricing Strategy Behind $84,000 Hepatitis Drug,” Press release, December 1, 2015, available at, The Editorial Board, “How Big Pharma plays games with drug patents and how to combat it,”, Robin Feldman, “May your drug price be evergreen,”, United States Government Accountability Office, “Drug Industry: Profits, Research and Development Spending and Merger and Acquisition Deals” (Washington: 2017), available at, Picchi, “Drug prices in 2019 are surging, with hikes at 5 times inflation.”, Pew Charitable Trusts, “A Look at Drug Spending in the U.S.” (Washington: 2018), available at, Bob Herman, ”Axios analysis: Drugmakers getting richer,” Axios, May 13, 2019, available at, Pew Charitable Trusts, “The Prescription Drug Landscape, Explored,” (Washington: 2019), available at, Dan Mangan, “Medication costs fuel painful medical debt, bankruptcies,” CNBC, May 28, 2014, available at, Kathleen Sebelius, Thomas R. Frieden, and Charles J. Rothwell, “Health United States, 2013: With Special Feature on Prescription Drugs” (Washington: U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 2013), available at, Robin A. Cohen, Peter Boersma, and Anjel Vahratian, “Strategies Used by Adults Aged 18–64 to Reduce Their Prescription Drug Costs, 2017” (Washington: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 2019), available at, Bram Sable-Smith, “American Travelers Seek Cheaper Prescriptions Drugs In Mexico and Beyond,” NPR, February 11, 2019, available at, Chantal Da Silva, “A ‘Caravan’ of Americans Is Crossing the Canadian Border To Get Affordable Medical Care,”, Laura Lorenzetti, “Trump Somehow Plans to Negotiate Drug Prices to Zero,”, Executive Office of the President, “President Donald J. Trump’s Blueprint To Lower Drug Prices” (Washington: 2018), available at. A recent poll from Gallup has found that the pharmaceutical sector is the most loathed industry in the country. 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