Valeant Pharmaceuticals shares began to rally today but still could erase all of Thursday’s losses, which came on the back of a town hall meeting held by Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. Clinton read a damning letter written by a woman who attended the meeting and accuses Valeant of raising the price of a drug she has taken for decades—from just $180 for 10 doses to nearly $15,000 for the same number of vials. Apparent price gouging for generic drugs has become a hot button issue in the presidential race.
Today, however, it seems investors might be cheered as federal investigators plan to release thousands of pages of emails sent or received by Clinton in what could become a deciding factor in this important election year.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign reveals letter – Talk about Valeant’s drug prices
Clinton’s campaign website published a video of Clinton reading a letter submitted by Ellen Mayberry, who apparently did not know she would be reading her letter at the town hall meeting in Iowa. She explained that the price of a drug she has taken for migraines since the early 1980s has skyrocketed. When she first started taking the drug, which is manufactured by Valeant, it cost $180 for 10 shots. By December 2015, the price for the same number of shots was $14,729.99.
And this increase hasn’t happened overnight, as she said in March 2015, the cost was $10,144.54, and in August 2014, the price was $6,469.63. In June 2014, her prescription cost $3,248.82. Clinton promised to stop the “predatory pricing” of pharmaceutical companies if she is elected president. She’s been calling for a stop to price gouging on drugs since at least the 1990s.
Hillary Clinton’s emails to be released
Today Valeant shares may be reacting to the news that the State Department plans to release about 2,000 pages of Clinton’s emails but has asked to delay the release of the rest of the pages until after the Democratic primaries in some key states. Allegations are being raised that the delay is due to President Obama’s endorsement of Clinton for president. Delaying the release of those emails until after the primaries might ensure that she wins the Democratic nomination.
According to The Washington Times, the State Department claims that they just released a few weeks ago that they still have thousands of emails that must be reviewed by other agencies but that they forgot to send them out—even though they’ve had more than a year to sort through them. The judge in the case has not ruled about whether the department will be allowed to delay the release of the emails.
H/T Charles Grant, WSJ
