Think Tank Challenges Bernie Sanders’ Notion of ‘Excessive Profits’ for Drugmakers

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has raised his battle flag against high drug prices on a crumbling hill, according to a conservative think tank that’s picking apart a study supporting Sanders’ views on the matter.

“Sen. Bernie Sanders envisions himself as a modern-day St. Michael slaying the dragon of high drug costs,” Sally C. Pipes and Wayne Winegarden of the California-based Pacific Research Institute wrote in an issue brief. “In reality, his efforts will deny new innovative treatments to patients living in hope that, one day, they too will have access to efficacious medicines.”

After reading a JAMA Network Open study finding that Novo Nordisk reaps hundreds in profit on every Ozempic (semaglutide) prescription, Sanders said the company is gouging Americans with an “outrageously high price” for the diabetes and weight-loss drug.

But the study that sparked the senator’s ire is deeply flawed and paints an untruthful picture, Pipes and Winegarden wrote.

Read the issue brief here.

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