WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Katie Porter on Wednesday grilled former Celgene CEO Mark Alles over price hikes on a cancer treatment drug. In order to get her point across, she used a whiteboard to connect rising prices to the former pharma executive's compensation.
A House Oversight Committee and Reform report found that Celgene raised the price of the drug Revlimid 22 times since 2005, from $215 per pill to $719 per pill. The price was raised again to $763 per pill in November. The report claimed that a monthly course of the drug is priced at "$16,023 today—more than triple the 2005 price."
During a House hearing Wednesday, the Democratic congresswoman from California tore into Alles by showing on her white board how much he made from the rising costs of a single pill over the years.
She started by writing $13 million on the board. She then asked Alles if he knew what the number represented.
"Does it ring any bells?" she asked.
Before he could really answer the question, Porter started writing more numbers on her board explaining that $13 million was Alles' pay in 2017 for being CEO. She said it's 200 times the average American income and 360 times what the "average senior gets in Social Security."
She proceeded to explain, and add to the whiteboard, that of the $13 million, about $2.1 million was given to Alles when the company reached specific sales targets. She went on to explain that a price increase of a drug would have the company reach marks needed to give him a bonus.
"The House committee found that if you had not raised the price of Revlimid, you wouldn't have gotten your bonus," Porter said.
She noted that he received a $500,000 bonus over the past two years, all credited to raising the price of one drug Revlimid.
"So to recap here: The drug didn't get any better, the cancer patients didn't get any better — you just got better at making money, you just refined your skills at price gouging," Porter said.
Her portion of the hearing has been viewed millions of times on Twitter. She posted the video, and Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, shared the video with the caption, "Oh my god, Katie Porter."
The hearing was following an ongoing 18-month investigation initiated by then-Chairman Elijah E. Cummings. The CEOs of Bristol Myers Squibb and Teva were also at the hearing.
