WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will hold a confirmation hearing next month for Monica Bertagnolli, President Biden’s nominee to run the National Institutes of Health, he said Friday.
Sanders, whose health committee oversees the confirmation of the NIH nominee, had refused to hold a hearing on Bertagnolli until the Biden administration promised more drug pricing reform.
HHS announced Friday a deal with Regeneron on the development of the Covid-19 monoclonal antibody. That deal seems to have satisfied Sanders’ demands, though Sanders said the administration must add reasonable pricing provisions to all drugs developed with the help of government funding.
“I welcome the Biden Administration’s announcement today that if Regeneron, through a $326 million contract recently signed with HHS, successfully develops a next generation monoclonal antibody for Covid-19 prevention, the list price of this drug must be equal to or lower than the price in other major countries,” Sanders said in a release.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also had withheld support for Bertagnolli’s nomination until Bertagnolli agreed to Warren’s ethics demands. Bertagnolli agreed to not join the pharmaceutical industry or accept payment from the drug industry, until at least four years after leaving her government position.