Month: May 2019

Rep. Davids to speak at Democratic breakfast Saturday

The guest speaker for the Saturday, May 18, Wyandotte County Third Saturday Democratic Breakfast will be U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-3rd Dist.

The breakfast will begin with a buffet at 8:15 a.m., with the program beginning at 9 a.m. at Las Islas Marias, 7516 State Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.

Also speaking at the Saturday breakfast will be state Rep. Valdenia Winn, the Kansas House Democratic assistant leader. She will give a legislative report.

The breakfast is open to all Democrats. The cost is $10. Students and people on limited incomes will pay $6.

It’s not required to purchase a breakfast to attend. Those who plan to purchase breakfast should respond to [email protected] by Friday, May 17. Reservations are encouraged, but not necessary to attend.

State representative tells of frustration during recent session

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Opinion column


by Murrel Bland

There is an old saying that goes something like this:

“Those who like legislation and sausage would do well not to see either of them being made.”

That certainly proved true during the recent session of the Kansas Legislature. And that process proved very disappointing to State Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore (D-36th Dist.) of western Wyandotte County. She explained her severe frustration at a meeting of the Legislative Committee Friday, May 10, at the Chamber of Commerce office.

Rep. Moore was particularly upset that the proposed Medicaid expansion bill failed to pass. It was even more disgusting to Rep. Moore to see the way that conservative Republican leadership twisted arms to kill the measure.

Rep. Moore knows firsthand how important expanded Medicaid could be to the 150,000 Kansans who do not have any health insurance coverage. She works for the University of Kansas Health System.

At one time, there were 70 members of the Kansas House and 24 members of the Kansas Senate who favored the expanded Medicaid. This was a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats.

But in final days of the legislative session, Rep. Moore said she saw the conservative leadership pick off Medicaid proponents, even though polls and Kansas hospitals overwhelmingly favored the expansion. The bill, which would have been funded 90 percent by the federal government, would have been particularly helpful for uninsured residents of Wyandotte County.

Rep. Moore said that State Sen. Jim Denning (R- Eighth Dist.) of Overland Park has said he will sponsor a bill next year that will be a version of such an expansion, suggesting that there needs to be a “work provision” in the law. She said that sounds good — that a person needs to work to receive the benefits. However, she said that in other states enforcing that work provision proved too costly.

Another discouraging aspect of this legislative session was that it ended at 3:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is the executive director of Business West.

Lawsuit claims sick people in Missouri and Kansas paid higher prices for generic drugs

by Dan Margolies, Kansas News Service

Missouri and Kansas have joined 41 other states and Puerto Rico in a lawsuit accusing generic drug makers of conspiring to manipulate and drive up prices for more than 100 generic drugs.

The 510-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Connecticut, names 20 drug companies and 15 executives as defendants, alleging they participated in a conspiracy led by generic drug giant Teva Pharmaceuticals USA.

“We have hard evidence that shows the generic drug industry perpetrated a multi-billion dollar fraud on the American people,” Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. “We have emails, text messages, telephone records, and former company insiders that we believe will prove a multi-year conspiracy to fix prices and divide market share for huge numbers of generic drugs.”

Tong, who is taking the lead in the case, announced the lawsuit Sunday night on “60 Minutes,” which aired a story about the case.

The lawsuit expands on an earlier case brought by Connecticut and 19 other states in December 2016. That lawsuit, which is pending, has since been joined by more than two dozen other states.

In a statement Monday, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt called the alleged conspiracy “one of the most damaging and far-reaching price fixing schemes in modern history, with certain companies inflating prices by nearly 1,000%.”

“Millions and millions of Americans rely on generic prescription drugs every day to treat diabetes, infections, depression, cancer, HIV, and more,” Schmitt said. “This price fixing scheme by Teva Pharmaceuticals and other industry giants demonstrates a level of corporate greed the state of Missouri and the country rarely sees. By joining this lawsuit we’re sending a clear message to pharmaceutical companies: if you harm any of the 6 million people that call Missouri home, we will pursue action and hold you accountable for your actions.”

Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, which is based in Pennsylvania and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, denied wrongdoing in a statement.

“The allegations “are just that – allegations,” the company said.

“Teva continues to review the issue internally and has not engaged in any conduct that would lead to civil or criminal liability. Teva delivers high-quality medicines to patients around the world, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations in doing so. We will continue to vigorously defend the company.”

Teva subsidiaries operate out of two locations in Overland Park, Kansas, where until recently they employed about 350 people. The city and state granted Teva more than $53 million in tax abatements in 2013 to erect a $46 million, five-story headquarters building at College Boulevard and Nall Avenue, where it employed back office workers in its branded drug business. A smaller facility is located a few blocks away on 107th Street.

In December 2017, Teva announced plans to slash its global workforce by 25 percent. The local workforce has since been reduced, although it’s not clear by how much. A spokeswoman for Teva did not immediately respond to a query about how many people it now employs in the area.

The lawsuit filed Friday in Connecticut alleges that Teva significantly raised prices on more than 100 generic drugs beginning in July 2013 and colluded with competing companies to carve up markets and raise prices on at least 86 of those drugs.

The suit claims that the defendants coordinated their moves in person or by cell phone at golf outings, cocktail parties, industry dinners and other social occasions.

Besides Teva, the companies named in the suit:
• Actavis Holdco US, Inc.
• Actavis Pharma Inc.
• Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc.
• Apotex Corp.
• Aurobindo Pharma U.S.A. Inc.
• Breckenridge Pharmaceutical Inc.
• Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Inc.
• Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA
• Greenstone LLC
• Lannett Company Inc.
• Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc.
• Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc.
• Par Pharmaceutical Companies Inc.
• Pfizer Inc.
• Sandoz Inc.
• Taro Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.
• Upsher-Smith Laboratories LLC
• Wockhardt USA LLC
• Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc.


Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter @DanMargolies. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to kcur.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/post/lawsuit-sick-people-missouri-kansas-paid-higher-prices-generic-drugs-due-price-fixing