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Chuck Schumer and drug prices
Off topic, but...
Merck & Co.'s patent on Zocor, a cholesterol-reducing drug, is about to expire. Another company, Teva Pharmaceuticals, began gearing up to bring out a cheaper generic. That's the free market.
Merck cut a deal with an insurance group to reduce its price for Zocor to below the generic price. Okay, that's the free market. They're going to lose the legal monopoly conferred by the patent, and they'd better make their prices competitive.
And so.... Chuck Schumer is calling for an FTC investigation of Merck's price cut.
UPDATE: Here's another patent case involving Teva Pharmaceuticals, in which Schumer filed an amicus brief backing the company's position.
Just did a quick search of the Federal Elections Commission political contributions webpage. Let's see, Harold Snyder, VP of Teva, donated $45,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 1998-99. In 2001, George Barnett, described as a Teva Executive, gave $2000 to Schumer's election committee. William Fletcher of Teva also gave $2000 to him.
The Demo health plan seems to be -- lowering drug prices is a bad idea, if it hurts Democratic contributors.
I noticed the same irony as you did about Schumer's bias toward TEVA, a foreign-based firm, and against MERCK, a US-based firm, and wondered what's behind his attack on lowering drug prices.