The CEOs of Pfizer and Eli Lilly attended non-public dinners with Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
A gaggle of progressive U.S. senators on Monday pushed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Well being and Human Providers Division, to reveal what he and President Donald Trump mentioned with pharmaceutical executives at recent private dinners because the trade pressures the brand new administration to finish Medicare drug value negotiations.
In a letter to Kennedy, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pointed to Wall Road Journal reporting from final month on the hundreds of thousands of {dollars} that healthcare trade executives spent to dine with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Florida forward of his inauguration.
Kennedy, based on the Journal, “attended a number of of the dinners, however largely stayed quiet as Trump and others talked.”
Warren, Wyden, and Sanders wrote to Kennedy that “the dinners might have served as a chance for Large Pharma to achieve insider entry to each you and President Trump” and requested the HHS chief to disclose details about the conferences with trade executives, together with what number of there have been for the reason that November election and whether or not Medicare drug value negotiations or different crucial issues had been mentioned.
“Large Pharma stands to revenue immensely from a second Trump administration, particularly if they will persuade you and President Trump to desert insurance policies like Medicare drug value negotiations and patent reform that will save Individuals tons of of billions of {dollars} on lifesaving medicine,” the senators wrote. “Certainly, the executives that attended these dinners have referred to as on him to ‘pause drug negotiations’ — negotiations which might be anticipated to avoid wasting taxpayers $100 billion by 2032.”
“You owe the American public an evidence for why you took half in PhRMA’s influence-peddling occasions with President Trump, what occurred at these conferences, and whether or not they’ll have an effect on your dedication to making sure that Individuals obtain the aid they deserve from excessive drug costs,” the senators added.
RFK Jr. mentioned he’d “clear up corruption” as HHS Secretary.
So why’d he have dinner with Large Pharma executives at Mar-a-Lago with Trump?
The American individuals should know what sort of offers might need been made at these “million-dollar” dinners.
— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) March 10, 2025 at 4:29 PM
The Journal reported that the CEO of Pfizer, which pumped $1 million into Trump’s inaugural committee, was among the many executives who attended the non-public Mar-a-Lago dinners. Eli Lilly’s chief government additionally joined at least one of the dinners.
Although Kennedy, an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, has vocally criticized Large Pharma and its political affect, the trade did not lobby against his nomination to guide HHS, which oversees the Medicare drug value negotiations that started throughout the Biden administration.
Final month, the pinnacle of the pharmaceutical trade’s greatest lobbying group and several other pharma CEOs met with Trump as a part of a marketing campaign to weaken the worth negotiations, which threaten drugmakers’ skill to jack up costs at will.
The negotiations have yielded significant results, however Trump’s Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers — an company inside HHS — has signaled it’s open to altering this system.
“The Trump administration’s assertion is much from an embrace of drug value negotiation,” Wyden and different senators warned earlier this yr, “and seems to be opening the door to adjustments that would undermine Medicare’s skill to get the very best value potential on medicine.”
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