Washington Examiner: California Democrat profited from prescription drug price hikes
According to Gil Cisneros’ most recent financial disclosure report, he has almost $700,000 invested in big pharmaceutical companies.
Looks like lottery winner Gil doesn’t actually think high prescription drug prices are bad, he just wants to make a profit!
In case you missed it…
California Democrat profited from prescription drug price hikes
Kerry Picket
Washington Examiner
August 21, 2020
California Rep. Gill Cisneros advocated for lowering the prices of prescription drugs. But financial records show he profited from companies that hiked the price of different medications.
Although the freshman Democrat has said he will fight Big Pharma, records show he banked in through pharmaceutical investments.
Cisneros owned up to nearly $700,000 in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in 2019, according to his latest House Financial Disclosure form. He previously had $635,000 in pharmaceutical and biotechnology investments in 2018, according to his 2019 form, and owned up to $1,055,000 in the same industries in 2017.
Records show Cisneros owns hundreds of thousands in stock in the pharmaceutical industry, and his foundation owned stock in one company that increased the price on an arthritis medication by over 1,600% and another that raised the price of insulin by almost 700%.
Cisneros, however, previously touted support for lowering prescription drug prices by pointing to his December 2019 vote in favor of the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, HR3.
“Today, Representative Gilbert R. Cisneros, Jr. (CA-39) released the following statement after H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, passed the House. The Act will reduce prescription drug costs for millions of Americans. Rep. Cisneros has been a staunch advocate for lowering prescription drug costs and reducing healthcare costs for his constituents,” a statement from Cisneros’s office said at the time of the legislation’s lower chamber passage.
In 2017, the Gilbert and Jacki Cisneros Foundation owned shares in Sanofi-Aventis, each worth $7,632, but Sanofi-Aventis increased the price of its insulin from $35 per vial when it was introduced in 2001 to $270 in 2019, causing bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill.
Sanofi-Aventis is a French pharmaceutical company founded in 2004 through the merger of Sanofi-Synthelabo and Aventis, a much larger firm.
The foundation also invested in the pharmaceutical company Horizon Therapeutics, which makes the arthritis drug Vimovo. The company hiked its prices between 2015 and 2016.
Beginning in 2014, Vimovo’s price was increased by Horizon 1,600%, and between January 2014 and July 2016, the company increased the list price of the drug six times to $2,250. The foundation was no longer invested in the pharmaceutical company after 2016.
Cisneros, whose campaign did not respond to an inquiry from the Washington Examiner, pledged early on he would not accept checks from corporate lobbyists, but according to Politico, he accepted money from four lobbyists, one of who represented a major pharmaceutical company.
Lobbyists representing clients including AT&T, Comcast, Microsoft, Pfizer, Verizon, and Wells Fargo hosted a fundraiser for the California Democrat six months into his term.
The Cisneros campaign, instead, stated on its website that the congressman would continue to defend the Affordable Care Act, adding, “We need to work to stabilize insurance markets and have the government directly negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies to bring costs down.”