Universities Are Profiting From Blocking Drug-Price Reform
Teaming up with Big Pharma and Wall Street, universities are profiting by fighting government efforts to curtail soaring drug prices. A case in point: UCLA has reaped more than a billion dollars from its development of Xtandi, a lifesaving cancer drug.
A university building in Los Angeles, California. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Research universities, many of them public, have joined forces with pharmaceutical companies and Wall Street firms to fight new government efforts to curtail out-of-control drug prices, saying the regulations could stifle innovation.
But these universities are also likely concerned that drug-price reforms would hamper their profits. Case in point: the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has quietly reaped more than a billion dollars in payouts from Xtandi, a lifesaving cancer drug that it developed with the help of government funding and now costs US patients $200,000 a year.
The university is among those working to block the government from lowering the cost of prescription drugs like Xtandi that have been developed with taxpayer money.
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