Bernie Sanders

The current system is not just leading to immoral outcomes, it is ineffective at incentivizing R&D

The government says, look, these are the challenges that we face, the illnesses we want to deal with and you are going to come up with a product and make a lot of money, but then it is ours and we are going to distribute it in a…

Medical tourism has actually been a phenomenon for a while, but this is an extreme situation.

The truth is, this hearing could be held in any number of committees, because it goes well beyond Sovaldi...

We could do that in one way, which would be to say, we are just going to give Gilead as much money as we anticipate the company will make by the virtue of its patent monopoly.

You have a monopoly situation where the person who has a pill that is desperately needed... can charge anything they want for it?

The nature of a patent monopoly is the monopoly seller chooses the price.

What is the moral implication of it? Are we comfortable as a nation with a product being available which can save human lives, but either individuals or government agencies are not able to afford that product the company is making…

If we choose to address that monopoly through government policy, since we, the people, gave the monopoly in the first place, we can bring the price down.

It is a certainty that it will continue in a worse way with this level of pricing.

Senator Burr raised some really interesting questions that I hope we will explore later on.

I am a strong supporter of VA and would like to put more money into the system, but there is a limit to what can be done.

That is unacceptable, particularly in the circumstances where we are talking about a life-saving drug and the rationing is entirely avoidable.

Gilead is making this drug available to countries like Egypt, which have very, very serious problems with Hepatitis C.

I am just trying to get an overview here.

It is a moral issue--how many people in this country will suffer, and how many will die very painful deaths because they can not access the drugs they need because of the excessive costs.

I think it is important that people get it at a price they can afford it, but Americans should get it at a price they can afford as well.

Therefore, if we can get cost-effective treatment to people with Hepatitis C and prevent these very, very costly procedures, in the end VA, Medicare, Medicaid, and the American people save substantial sums of money.

I am upset that they have chosen not to be here.

One of the issues that Senator Burr and I are working on, which is a very terrible issue, is suicide rates and mental health issues among veterans.

Thank you very much.

My apologies to everybody. There were some votes that were announced yesterday that Senators had to be at.

There is no question in my mind that if we end up spending billions of dollars on this one particular drug, it is going to make it difficult for the VA to provide care in other areas where veterans need it.

This is a huge issue, which obviously, as I think you indicated, Mr. Rother, goes well beyond Sovaldi.

I certainly believe that when you have a product that saves lives and eases suffering, you want to get it out as widely as possible.