Trending News Today: Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Under Fire for Raising Drug Costs

Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, created an HIV/AIDS initiative that seeks to avoid hospitalizations and nursing home stays for patients. According to Kaiser Health News, the state funds services, including case management, nursing, caregiving, therapy, transportation, and home-delivered meals. However, the program’s funding has remained under $12 million for more than 15 years and is said to be underfunded.

Though pharmaceutical companies have been under scrutiny for raising drug costs, The New York Times reports that the list price for drugs increased more than 12% in 2015. Many companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, Gilead, and Celgene, have all raised their prices this year. The article also states that the net price growth went up by just 2.8%, which is reported to be one of the lowest increases recently.

Valent CEO J. Michael Pearson will appear before the Senate Committee on Aging today and will take the blame for the increased prices on older drugs, The Washington Post reports. Valeant is also involved with 3 federal probes of its accounting and pricing. The company is said to have lost more than 80% of its value in the past year.