Brent Saunders, the chief
executive of Allergan, one of the largest pharmaceutical firms in the world, is
concerned that in an era of increasing political polarization, Americans will
become fed up and embrace the single-payer health care plan set to
be unveiled Wednesday by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
He shared his candid
thoughts last weekend at the Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference in
Boston, a gathering for investors and major pharmaceutical and biotech firms.
Americans have lost trust in
drug companies, Saunders said, noting the industry consistently ranks lower
than oil and tobacco companies in public trust surveys.
“I think we’ve got to do
things to bring that trust back,” the executive added, “because ultimately,
someone’s going to be in the White House. Somebody’s going to be in Congress.
Someone’s going to be somewhere and going to have to say, ‘Enough’s enough.
Let’s just change the whole system. Let’s go to one payer. Let’s do something.'”
While single payer has
been discarded as a fringe, far-left idea over recent generations, the
policy proposal has gained new traction in the wake of the 2016 presidential
election. Many in the Democratic Party are drifting to the ideas of Sanders and
other progressives who have long advocated for expanding coverage by
providing Medicare to all Americans.
Saunders observed that “the
party that seems to be out of power tends to move dramatically to the left or
to the right,” adding that the Republican Party during the Obama era had
lurched more right-wing.
“We’re seeing almost the equal
but opposite reaction here now that they’ve been swept out, the left of their
party is really taken, gotten a louder voice and taken control,” Saunders
continued, speaking about changes in the Democratic Party.
“And so Bernie Sanders and
others in that movement had really tried to vet candidates,” Saunders noted,
adding, “They wanted to go to one — that part of the party wants to go to a
one-payer system.”
During his speech, Saunders
touted a statement of principles he released
in 2016 calling for a “social contract” with patients, promising not to use predatory
pricing and other behaviors that have come to define his industry.
But if Saunders is concerned
that the public may get fed up with the current system, it may have something
to do with how Allergan itself has acted in recent weeks. The CEO has
been under fire for taking the unprecedented step of transferring the
patent of one of Allergan’s blockbuster drugs, the eye medication Restasis, to
a sovereign Native American tribe as part of a bid to maintain monopoly control
of the drug and its revenue.
The highly unusual legal
strategy is designed to keep generic drug firms from challenging the Restasis
patent, thus lowering the cost to consumers, while keeping Allergan in
effective control of the revenue through its deal with the Saint Regis
Mohawk Tribe. The Restasis patent was approved 15 years ago and was set to
expire in 2014, but the Allergan deal is part of an attempt to renew the patent
and extend the company’s control of the drug through
2024.
While serious questions linger
about the political viability of single payer, especially for the immediate
future under President Donald Trump and a Republican Congress, the center of
gravity within the Democratic Party has shifted dramatically in favor of the
universal Medicare plan that health care executives fear.
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