Recently, U.S. Senator Tim Scott, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, engaged in a dialogue with Dr. Mehmet Oz during his confirmation hearing. Dr. Oz has been nominated by President Trump to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The discussion covered several topics such as drug pricing, CRISPR technology, and telemedicine.
Senator Scott expressed concerns about prescription drug pricing, stating: “We need to have a long conversation about how expensive drugs are these days, but at the same time, we should have a similar conversation about how when drugs hit that generic market, they dropped precipitously in price … I would hate to, for the lack of a better way of saying, shortchange the American people by focusing on the original sticker price without having the value proposition long-term over the ultimate cost of a drug, when it’s in the generic forms.”
On CRISPR technology and innovation, Senator Scott noted: “I do think that CRISPR technology as we know it today is going to transform medicine as we know it tomorrow … I hope that you have a commitment, in your new position, to move forward with some of the cell and gene therapy access models that we’re talking about, making it affordable for people … on Medicare and Medicaid.”
Regarding telemedicine advancements post-Covid-19 pandemic, he remarked: “There’s a silver lining in Covid … It was the development and the acceleration of telemedicine. And I think it’s going to save millions if not trillions of dollars over time. I hope that you are committed to doing as much investigation as necessary to make sure that telemedicine is not just here to stay but that it is embraced adopted throughout our country wherever it is practical to be used.”
