President Donald Trump didn鈥檛 mention Novartis or other drugmakers by name last year when he said the industry is 鈥済etting away with murder.鈥�
Yet executives at the Switzerland-based pharmaceutical giant shelled out $1.2 million to Trump lawyer Michael Cohen to 鈥溾�� its executives on health policy and what was happening in the Trump White House.
Novartis paid more money to Cohen than did any of his clients revealed thus far.
The company said it quickly determined he was unable to deliver the help but paid the full amount owed in his contract. 鈥淲e made a mistake鈥� in hiring him, CEO Vasant Narasimhan on Thursday.
Hiring the president鈥檚 personal attorney matches a history of aggressively courting government officials by a corporation with much to lose in the debate over high drug prices.
Novartis has nine blockbuster drugs generating around $1 billion or more in annual sales and priced so high in some cases that patients have trouble affording them even with insurance. Another nine drugs produce more than $500 million in sales.
High costs and copayments for Novartis鈥� Gleevec, which treats a form of leukemia, are associated with patients delaying or skipping doses, said researcher Stacie Dusetzina of Vanderbilt University.
Gleevec often must be taken for life and costs $148,000 a year 鈥� three times more than when it came out, according to Connecture, which provides technology to help people save money on prescriptions.
Novartis also makes drugs for psoriasis and multiple sclerosis that cost more than $100,000 a year. The price tag for Kymriah, a Novartis leukemia treatment approved last year, is $475,000.
The company earned $7.7 billion in profits last year on worldwide sales of $49 billion.
Novartis鈥� political action committee has been a sizable contributor on Capitol Hill, last year to candidates for federal office and other political causes.
The company lobbying U.S. lawmakers in 2017, its highest amount ever, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That doesn鈥檛 count the previously undisclosed payments to Cohen, which the company said were for consulting, not lobbying.
One issue that especially interests the company: the importation of drugs from Canada and other countries, which would undercut its high U.S. prices and badly hurt profits. Novartis sells its drugs for a fraction of U.S. prices in other developed countries.聽In 2015, Gleevec sold in Canada while a generic version of the same drug sold for only $8,800.
Importation was one of Novartis鈥� last year.
A few of Novartis鈥� blockbusters:
麻豆女优 Health News鈥� coverage of prescription drug development, costs and pricing is supported in part by the .