Dive Brief:
- The House Oversight Committee continues to press Valeant for more details on documents the committee claims Valeant withheld from a February hearing.
- Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) sent the troubled drugmaker a letter requesting detailed information on documents related to its pricing of the heart drugs Isuprel and Nitropress. For the hearing, Valeant provided relevant documents excepts for those it said fell under attorney-client privilege.
- Valeant had sharply increased the prices of Isuprel and Nitropress by 525% and 212%, respectively, almost immediately after acquiring them from Marathon Pharmaceuticals in 2015. These price increases, among others, were the target of much of the Oversight Committee's criticisms at the February hearing.
Dive Insight:
Valeant quickly pushed back on Chaffetz's letter, saying they had provided the committee with over 78,000 pages of documents.
"We are surprised and puzzled by the committee’s statement," said Robert Kelner, a partner at the law firm Covington & Burling, which represents Valeant. "We have declined to produce documents covered by the attorney-client privilege, and we are preparing a log for the committee detailing what documents are being withheld under that privilege."
According to the letter, the Oversight committee first asked Valeant to provide further information on February 3. Kelner replied by email advising the committee he would look into the number of documents which had been withheld due to attorney-client privilege. As of last week, the committee had not received any follow-up, prompting a second request--which the letter claimed had not received a reply.
Valeant's response did not indicate when it planned to provide the details requested by the Committee. You can read the Oversight Committee's letter below.