The former president of Eli Lilly's U.S. business, Alex Azar, faced a hostile group of Democrats in his confirmation hearing Tuesday. Tapped by the current occupier of the Oval Office to be Secretary of Health and Human Services replacing the corrupt and disgraced Tom Price, Azar will be the person who deals with the opioid crisis, any further Obamacare sabotage, and the Republicans' plans to destroy Medicaid and privatize Medicare. Additionally, he says, he'll support his president's goal of reducing prescription drug costs. Which is pretty fucking rich coming from a guy who doubled the price of drugs for Alzheimers and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drug, as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) stressed in his questioning.
Wyden pressed Azar to say whether, as chairman of Lilly's U.S. pricing committee, he had ever lowered a drug's price. Azar dodged."I don't know that there is any drug price of a branded product that has ever gone down from any company on any drug in the United States, because every incentive in this system is toward higher prices," he said. "No one company is going to fix that system. That's why I want to be here working with you."
Wyden said Azar had earlier told committee staff that he had never lowered the price of a Lilly drug.
Later, in an exchange with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Azar seemed to blame the price increases on drug rebates.
"This is what is so bizarre about the way the system is organized. Those price increases happen—and my former employer has said this publicly—during that same period, the net realized price by the company stayed flat … just to cover for increased rebates," he said. "The patient who walks into the pharmacy, whose insurance may not be paying for that, is absorbing that cost, and that's what I want to work with you to solve."
Wyden took up that blaming it on the "system" defense, admitting the "system is broken," adding "Mr. Azar was a part of that system.”
That wasn't the only thing Azar was pressed on. Asked about a variety of women's health issues, Azar plead ignorance. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) asked if he is "willing to take a look at [the Mexico City Policy] to see whether we can get a more rational way?" That policy prevents funding to international nongovernmental organizations which provide abortion counseling or referrals. Azar replied that he is "not deeply familiar with the ways of which any implementation of the Mexico City Policy changed at the beginning of this administration compared [to] past ones." That despite the fact that he was a top health official during the George W. Bush administration, so he should definitely be deeply familiar with the issue. When Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) asked what specific measures he would recommend to expand contraceptive use and reduce uplanned and unwanted pregnancies, Azar again demured. "I'm not as knowledgeable as I would like to be and would love to learn more about it from you," he said.