WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday jabbed the CEO of Merck for telling congressional staff that he didn’t have the expertise to testify at a Senate hearing on prescription drug prices because he’s a tax attorney.
Sanders, who has threatened to subpoena the CEOs of Merck and Johnson & Johnson over their refusal to testify at a hearing on why drug prices are higher in the United States than other countries, told reporters the reasons the companies gave ranged from “laughable” to “absurd.”
“Merck went so far, this is really interesting, to tell our staff that their CEO is a tax attorney who is not an expert on prescription drug prices. … Well, maybe, just maybe, the CEOs of these pharmaceutical companies should become experts on why they are ripping off the American people,” Sanders said.
Merck’s CEO, Robert Davis, has a law degree from Northwestern University.
The company declined to comment specifically on Sanders’ remarks, but said that the company had offered to have the head of its U.S. business, who is responsible for U.S. pricing and commercialization strategy, testify.
Merck has argued that Sanders’ planned hearing is retaliatory action by the committee for the company’s decision to sue the federal government over the Medicare drug price negotiation program that Democrats signed into law in 2022.
Johnson & Johnson CEO Joaquin Duato also refused to testify, and the company also offered a different executive. Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Chris Boerner agreed to voluntarily testify as long as at least one other CEO joins him.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who chairs the panel’s health subcommittee, joined Sanders and joked that CEOs could see the invitation to testify as an opportunity to learn more about how prices are set for their drugs.
“To the extent to which the CEOs are saying that they’re not qualified to testify as to why their prices are high and their profits are high, it says to us that we’re actually doing them a favor. They can go in and ask everyone in their company, ‘Why are they so high, and is there a way we could lower the prices?’”
A Senate HELP Committee vote on subpoenaing the CEOs is scheduled for Jan. 31. If a simple majority of the lawmakers on the panel vote in favor, these would be the first subpoenas issued by the committee in more than 40 years.
When asked whether he has the votes, Sanders said he thinks he does. But “you’re never totally confident of anything,” he said.
Sanders acknowledged that the pharmaceutical industry is powerful, but that one of the tools afforded to congressional committees is public pressure.