There is a new piece of hardware pharmaceutical CEOs can bring home — a trophy for being the "Most Hated Pharma CEO of the Year," according to a STAT newsletter.
Here are 10 things to know:
1. The award will be presented by Patients For Affordable Drugs, a nonprofit that has a goal of lowering prescription drugs and standing up to the pharmaceutical industry.
2. The winner will be decided democratically. The nonprofit has a poll on its website where the public can vote.
3. There are four nominees this year: AbbVie CEO Rick Gonzales, Vertex CEO Jeffery Leiden, Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks and Allergan CEO Brent Saunders.
4. The contenders were selected by the agency for "exploiting patients to rake in record profits" and their ability to stand out from the crowd by "demonstrations of greed." David Mitchell, founder of Patients For Affordable drugs said the nominees represent "the worst of the worst."
5. AbbVie makes the world's best-selling drug Humira, which treats arthritis and plaque psoriasis. The drug costs patients $5,000 a year, while Mr. Gonzalez made over $19 million. In addition, AbbVie is blocking generic competition of Humira and has filed 100 new patents to protect the drug.
6. Vertex makes cystic fibrosis drugs, one of which comes with a price tag of $300,000. Mr. Leiden was nominated because while this drug price keeps increasing, he took home more than $78 million dollars in fiscal year 2017.
7. Mr. Ricks was nominated because "the list price on Humalog, an Eli Lilly insulin, skyrocketed 1,157 percent in the past two decades, putting the price at more than $300 per vial –– and patients are dying trying to ration their supply," the nomination reads.
8. Mr. Saunders was recently called the "poster boy for patent abuse" by Bloomberg for its attempt to protect Allergan's blockbuster Restasis, a billion-dollar dry-eye treatment, by transferring patent rights. Many patients can't afford this $600 medication.
9. Although the design has not been finalized, there will be a physical trophy, a spokesperson for Patients for Affordable Drugs told STAT.
10. The trophy comes as the patient advocacy group spends millions to get the issue of drug pricing at the forefront before midterm elections.
Read STAT's full newsletter here. To hear more about the advocacy group's goals, listen to the podcast here. To read more about the nominees click here.
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