Alex Azar, a former Eli Lilly and Co. executive, acknowledged to the Senate Finance Committee that drug prices are too high and said he'd work to lower them if confirmed as secretary of Health and Human Services.
Former Eli Lilly exec Alex Azar, who is President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, faces senators at his second hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Eli Lilly and Co. CEO Dave Ricks said Monday that the recent changes in U.S. tax policy will help the drugmaker lower its global tax burden as he continues to look for deals in areas like oncology.
Pfizer said it will continue its support of potential blockbuster drug tanezumab, a late-stage pain treatment in development with Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co.
The university’s $205 million in big gifts was about two-thirds of the $302.9 million in gifts of $1 million or more given by individuals to Indiana not-for-profits in 2017.
Eli Lilly and Co. announced this fall it was reviewing whether to sell or spin off the division, which employs 6,500 people, including 800 at its Greenfield headquarters.
The 5-year-old Carmel biotech has won plenty of attention from Wall Street and has secured more than $100 million through licensing deals and a stock offering to help fund expensive clinical trials.
Taltz, launched in 2016 to treat plaque psoriasis, won approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a second indication—treating adults with a form of arthritis.
In Indiana, Alex Azar was an influential member of a public airport board, tasked with oversight of human resources matters, when he defended the conduct of the airport CEO who was under fire for spending public money on travel, golf fees, steak dinners and Super Bowl tickets.
A recently unsealed suit accuses the Indianapolis-based drugmaker of offering free nursing services to doctors to induce them to prescribe the company’s products.
Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee asked Alex Azar, a former executive for Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., if he would put the public first if he is confirmed as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Pharmaceutical companies have introduced medicines to treat dependence, reverse overdoses and deal with opioid side effects. But few effective and economically viable alternatives to addictive painkillers have emerged from the laboratory.
The company is riding a roller coaster since its launch only 20 months ago, raising a total of $61 million, but abruptly changing gears on drug candidates.
As a top pharma industry veteran from 2007 to 2017, former Eli Lilly and Co. executive Alex Azar built a substantial financial portfolio now worth as much as $20.6 million.
