Elizabeth Warren vs. Big PharmaThe progressive icon says drug companies should be footing more of the bill for NIH BY SAM BAKER

January 22, 2015 Elizabeth Warren took on the pharmaceutical industry Thursday, as she proposed requiring drugmakers to foot more of the bill for federally funded research.

Warren said the large drug companies have grown "wealthy beyond imagination" through blockbuster drugs that depended on government-funded research—and by committing fraud.

"Over the last 10 years, some of our wealthiest drug companies—those that capitalize on government research to generate billions of dollars in revenues through the sale of blockbuster drugs—have found another way to boost profits," Warren said, according to prepared text of her speech at an event sponsored by the health care advocacy group Families USA. "They've been caught defrauding Medicare and Medicaid, withholding critical safety information about their drugs, marketing their drugs for uses that aren't approved, and giving doctors kickbacks for writing prescriptions for their drugs." more