https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/16/spoiler-because-australia-has-universal-healthcare-watch-ocasio-cortez-ask-pharma?fbclid=IwAR1JLwsjE6n0T_wHIqvySNxEHWktk9AdV4tIcg0jjYOcBXKNn0UHf-SKedw
"During a House hearing on Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked the CEO of one of America's largest pharmaceutical companies a simple but crucial question: Why does a life-saving HIV drug that costs $8 a month in Australia have a $2,000 price tag in the U.S.? Gilead chief executive Daniel O'Day declined to comment on the low price of Truvada for PrEP in Australia, but said the reason the cost is close to $2,000—"the current list price is $1,780," he said—in the United States is because the drug has "patent protection." As the Washington Post reported in March, the development of Truvada as a treatment for HIV was "almost fully funded by U.S. taxpayers." The U.S. government patented the treatment in 2015, according to the Post, but has "opted not to file an infringement suit to enforce" the patent even as Gilead—which argues the government patent is invalid—rakes in billions of dollars in profits from Truvada. Ocasio-Cortez highlighted these facts during the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on Thursday."
