Richest Industry in America Attacks Safety-Net Hospitals

Hand it to Big Pharma. When you’ve lost the argument on every factual front, when the courts keep ruling against you, when nearly two dozen states have passed laws to stop your contract pharmacy restrictions, when 100 members of Congress have signed a letter to defund your favorite federal rebate scheme — you pivot to comedy.

In a recent TV ad that doubtlessly left most watchers bewildered, the industry accused the CEOs of safety-net hospitals of profiteering on the 340B Drug Discount Program.

That’s rich.

Steve Ubl, the CEO of PhRMA — the trade group that made the ad — took home $7.64 million in total compensation in 2024, according to the organization’s IRS filings. He’s a lobbyist. Actual pharmaceutical CEOs? Eli Lilly’s David Ricks earned $36.7 million in 2025 — a 26 percent raise from the year before. Johnson & Johnson’s Joaquin Duato: $32.8 million. Pfizer’s Albert Bourla: $27.6 million. Amgen’s Robert Bradway: $24.7 million.

These are the people running an industry that charged American patients 2.78 times more for prescription drugs than citizens in other developed countries. For brand-name drugs, the gap is even wider: 4.2 times higher than prices in comparable nations, according to a 2024 RAND Corporation study. When a European patient pays $100 for a medication, an American pays $422.

And when these same companies aren’t gouging Americans, they’re spending $10 billion annually on consumer advertising to tell you how much they care about patients. That’s roughly one of every four minutes of prime-time television. This is the industry pointing the finger at non-profit, safety-net hospitals. Forget policy arguments. This is a con.

The 340B program exists to help safety-net hospitals, rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers, Ryan White HIV clinics and children’s hospitals stretch scarce resources to serve the most vulnerable patients in America.

• In rural Missouri, Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare delivers approximately 350 babies a year. Without it, the nearest birthing center is more than 90 minutes away.
• In Kentucky, University of Louisville Health — facing one of the worst addiction crises in the country — operates one of the largest psychiatric hospitals east of the Mississippi River, sustained by 340B savings.
• At Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge, uninsured patients pay an average of $7.77 for retail prescriptions. Without 340B, the same prescription costs $78.13. For specialty medications -- cancer drugs, biologics — the difference is even more stark: $48.05 with 340B versus $3,937.10 without it.
• Adirondack Health runs the only outpatient oncology department in the region — chemotherapy and infusion therapy for rural cancer patients who have no other option. Its 340B savings fund not just the clinic, but a travel assistance fund for patients navigating mountainous terrain to reach it.
• At Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, no uninsured patient ever pays more than $5 for any formulary prescription — because of 340B. In 2023 alone, Grady filled nearly 900,000 low-cost prescriptions for patients, some of whom were referred specifically because of their financial situation.

The 340B discounts that drug companies provide to these 2,700 hospitals represent just 3 percent of their global revenues. Only in Washington can the most profitable industry in the world make an ad about greed and keep a straight face.