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DeLauro Calls For COVID-19 Drug Pricing Transparency

Tasos Katopodis
/
Pool via AP
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., speaks during a Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee hearing about the COVID-19 response on Capitol Hill in Washington earlier this month.

U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut says drug companies have not been transparent about how they spent tax dollars intended to address coronavirus.

DeLauro says pharmaceutical companies have gotten more than $1.8 billion in federal dollars for research and development of COVID-19 treatments. She says still, new drugs like Remdesivir can be prohibitively expensive.

DeLauro is co-sponsoring a bill to stop drugmakers from profiteering off of potentially life-saving pharmaceuticals. 

“Taxpayers should be able access these drugs that result from those investments affordably. And the taxpayers have the right to know where their dollars have gone and how they are being spent. Tracking where these dollars are going, no exclusivity, no profiteering, and no secrecy.”

DeLauro says ensuring access to these drugs is key, especially for Black and Latino communities that have been hit hardest by coronavirus.

Cassandra Basler, a former senior editor at WSHU, came to the station by way of Columbia Journalism School in New York City. When she's not reporting on wealth and poverty, she's writing about food and family.
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