I think there will be bipartisanship. You’re already seeing it. Again, on the primary care bill, which Senator Cassidy voted against, we did have three Republicans out of 10 Republicans. Look, if you look at polling on this, and I do—what you find is, the high cost of prescription drugs is not just a Democratic issue, believe me. I’ve seen polls … where they’ve asked Republicans what their major issue is. One of the major issues is the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs. So this is not a Democratic issue. It’s not a Republican issue. It’s not an independent issue. The American people are disgusted with paying in some cases 10 times more for the same drugs as people in other countries.
I’m glad you mentioned that political dimension here. Pharma CEOs aren’t exactly the most popular group of people with Americans. As we enter election season, do you think Democrats writ large should focus more on taking the powerful to task, rather than simply focusing on Donald Trump?
Yeah.… The American people want the president, they want Congress to substantially lower the cost of prescription drugs. In fairness to the Biden administration, we have made some progress. Medicare will now be able to negotiate the price of a number of drugs—not as much as I would like; not as quickly as I would like—but it’s a start in doing what virtually every other country on earth does, which is say to drug companies, “You cannot charge us any price that you want, for any reason.”