Paying Twice

Your tax dollars help pharmaceutical companies create new drugs. But you don’t get much of a return. Take the cancer drug, Taxol. Uncle Sam gave Bristol Myers Squibb $484 million of your money to help develop it. The company now charges $10,000 for a year’s supply. They’ve made $9 billion (with a B) on Taxol since releasing it in 1993 – including $687 from Medicare. But Washington has only gotten $35 million in royalties for it. (from a Rep Peter DeFazio (D-OR) Op-Ed column)