The U.S. House Oversight Committee announced Monday it is investigating the drug pricing practices of a dozen pharmaceutical companies, CNBC reports.
Committee chairman Elijah Cummings sent letters to the following drugmakers, according to the report: AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Celgene, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Mallinckrodt, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi and Teva Pharmaceuticals.
“For years, drug companies have been aggressively increasing prices on existing drugs and setting higher launch prices for new drugs while recording windfall profits,” Cummings said in a statement.
The Maryland Democrat says the investigation aims to discover why drugmakers have adopted a strategy so expensive for consumers, and whether there are any actions through which drug prices can be reduced.