Lawmakers question Health secretary nominee on drug industry ties

— -- Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, faced tough questions from lawmakers concerned about his ties to the drug industry at his nomination hearing before the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions committee.

Azar, a veteran of HHS and a former executive at the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company, has been criticized by Democrats for his lucrative career working for the drug industry.

Azar joined HHS under the George W. Bush administration after working on the 2000 Bush presidential campaign. He later became deputy secretary of HHS under Secretary Mike Leavitt. After serving in the government, Azar earned millions as an executive at the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company.

“The skepticism I hear is the fox guarding the hen house,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., about Azar’s private sector drug industry experience.

“Your resume reads like a how-to on how to profit from government service,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Republicans, however, have praised Azar for having a foot in both worlds at a time when rising drug prices and the opioid epidemic are at the forefront of national health care debates.

“You have served in the judicial branch as a law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia and you know the executive branch, having been HHS General Counsel and Deputy Secretary,” Sen. Lamar Alexander said in his opening statement. “And you know the private sector. You spent a decade in a leadership position at one of the country’s major pharmaceutical companies, so you know the system of how drugs get from the manufacturer to patients.”

Azar outlined his four main priorities for the HHS as lowering drug prices, making health care more affordable and fixing the Affordable Care Act, Medicare innovation, and tackling the opioid epidemic in his prepared opening remarks.

Democratic lawmakers pressed Azar on his responsibility as HHS Secretary to oversee the Affordable Care Act. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., asked Azar if he would “commit to faithfully implementing the Affordable Care Act.”

“If I am confirmed as Secretary my job is to faithfully implement the programs as passed by Congress whatever they are. So that would include, if the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, and remains such, to implement it as faithfully as possible and my hope would be to implement it — if it remains,” replied Azar.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., asked Azar if he agrees with President Trump’s roll back of the birth control mandate in the Affordable Care Act that expanded the right of employers to deny providing contraception on the basis of religious or moral objects.

“I will follow the law there,” replied Azar. “But I also will, as the president has done, try to balance the conscience objections of businesses and individuals.”

Recent changes to the Affordable Care Act by the Trump administration have been described as “sabotage” of the law by Democratic lawmakers. Azar said he disagrees with that description.

“I would disagree that there's any effort to sabotage the program, people want to see the program work,” said Azar.

If confirmed, Azar would replace the previous HHS Secretary, Tom Price, who resigned over his use of private jets at the expense of taxpayers.

Still, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Tenn., suggested he might not vote for Azar over his position on drug re-importation. Paul said President Trump is supportive of the controversial re-importation idea that re-imports American drugs back from foreign markets in an effort to lower prices, but Azar said former Democratic and Republican HHS secretaries have advised against the re-importation of drugs citing safety concerns.