States see little federal help
Oversight committees in both houses of Congress have faulted pharmaceutical companies for “skyrocketing price increases [that] are simply unsustainable,” as a House report put it in September 2020.
For instance, an examination of the chemotherapy drug Revlimid — produced until 2019 by Celgene, which has offices in Seattle — found the drug’s price had tripled over 15 years, to $16,023 for a monthly course. Celgene’s profits on the drug rose from $1 billion in 2009 to nearly $6.5 billion in 2018.
Congressional inquiries, however, have not translated to action, which has left it to legislatures in almost every state to act independently.
Washington is
