Drug firms’ tired song and dance on reform - The Boston Globe

IN MAKING a fool of President Obama, Big Pharma has turned itself into a poison pill of health care reform. In the summer, the drug companies offered $8 billion a year over 10 years in drug cost cuts, as long as the government did not ask for further reductions in what Medicare provides them. Obama proclaimed this a huge breakthrough, given the drug industry’s prior attacks on reform. “The pharmaceutical industry has been quite constructive in this debate,’’ Obama said. “And the savings that they’ve put on the table are real and significant and appreciated.’’ Big Pharma has taken the savings off the table. A new AARP analysis has found that drug companies raised their prices for prescription drugs by 9.3 percent over the last year, amounting to $10 billion in new revenues. That is $2 billion more than the promised annual cost cuts./p>

via boston.com

Posted via web from Jack's posterous