 A video of representative Katie Porter grilling Big Pharma CEO Mark Alice is quickly going viral online and when you see it, you're going to understand why, because it is awesome. This is exactly what I want to see from other lawmakers, actually grill these Big Pharma CEOs who gouge their patients not just for profits, but to personally enrich themselves. But before I play the clip for you, I do want to give you some additional context because what she is referring to here is something that occurred in January of 2019. So for that, let's go to a Bloomberg article written by Rebecca Spalding, who explains on the same day Selgeon Corp was announcing that it would be acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb Company and the biggest pharma deal ever, the company was also raising the price of its blockbuster cancer drug, the summit New Jersey based biotechnology company, which has routinely increased the prices of its top selling drugs, boosted the price of a 10 milligram dose of Revlimid by 3.5% to $719.82 effective January 3, 2019, according to price data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence and First Databank cancer patients need many doses of Revlimid a year, and the overall cost can approach $200,000, the same dose cost $247 and 28 cents at the end of 2007. Selgeon also raised the price of psoriasis therapy of Tesla, the cancer treatment of Brexane and two other drugs by the same percentage. In a statement, company spokesman Greg Geisman said the 3.5% increase is lower than the expected rate of spending growth in U.S. healthcare. Oh, well, are they not merciful? It's lower than the expected spending growth in U.S. healthcare. Well, that makes it better. No, I mean, the details of the story are pretty crystal clear. This company Selgeon gouged their customers knowing that their customers who rely on this treatment for their cancer have nowhere else to buy this drug. This company has a monopoly on this drug, so they don't have an option. So if you raise the cost, they have no choice. They have to pay that. So because you wanted to increase your profits, because you wanted to increase shareholder value, you gouged people who are vulnerable, who need this and who have no choice but to actually pay this, hoping that their insurance will cover the cost of this drug if they're lucky enough to have insurance. It's despicable. And the worst part about this is this company's CEO, Mark Gallas, actually personally benefited because they raised the cost and gouged their customers with cancer. Yeah. So you can understand why Katie Porter went in on him the way that she did, because this is outrageous. And you know, shaming them alone isn't enough. But certainly this really made me feel better after learning the details of this story. So enjoy, because you're going to know exactly why people loved this clip after knowing how outrageous, you know, the details of this story are. Do you know what this number is? I... Does it ring any bells? I think you're referring to my compensation in some way. This was your compensation in 2017 for being CEO of Celgene. And that's a lot of money. It's 200 times the average American's income and 360 times what the average senior gets on social security. Now of that 13 million, about 2.1 million came from your company hitting yearly earning targets. And more than half of the bonus formula was based on those targets. Any increase in the price of Revlimid would also increase your bonus by increasing earnings. Isn't that right, Mr. Ellis? If revenues increased and expenses did not, then earnings would be enhanced. Thank you. Mr. Ellis, in fact, the oversight committee found that if you hadn't increased the price of Revlimid, you wouldn't have gotten your bonus. Mr. Ellis, do you know how much you personally received in bonuses over two years, the last two years, just because Celgene raised the price of this one drug, Revlimid? I receive very generous compensation, but I don't know the exact number that you're referring to. In fact, you personally received half a million dollars, personally, just by tripling the price of Revlimid. So to recap here, the drug didn't get any better, the cancer patients didn't get any better, you just got better at making money. You just refined your skills at price scouting. And to be clear, the taxpayers spent 3.3 billion on Revlimid. Damn. That is how it's done. Um, look, I'll be honest with you, I always admired Katie Porter, but it annoyed me that someone as progressive as her didn't endorse Bernie Sanders in 2020. But I mean, if you're actually going to govern in a progressive way, I can put that aside. What she did here fully won me over. Like I'm on the Katie Porter bus. Like that was really good. Now, of course, it is the case that naming and shaming them isn't enough because you actually need legislation to control their action because they don't care how much you yell at them. You know, you can grill them all you want. But unless you rain them in legally, they're going to continue to do this. But the good thing is that Katie Porter actually does support and push for legislation that would curtail this type of behavior, which is important. Like grilling them is one important step, but actually raining them in with the law. That's what you do to stop this. But what she said here, it really speaks to just how greedy these people are. So she pointed out that that CEO got a bonus to the tune of $500,000 just by tripling the cost of Revlimid. So understand that these CEOs have an incentive to do that, not just for their company, but personally, the company made a lot of profits because they did that. So if you can profit off of doing this, because you know that your customers aren't going to have a choice and they're going to be forced to buy that drug anyway if they want to survive. Well, I mean, you do it. You make more money for yourself. You get it, you know, an additional yacht or a mansion and maybe you can't sleep at night. Maybe you do, but it's got to be difficult, right? She also says an oversight committee found that if you hadn't increased the price of Revlimid, you wouldn't have gotten your bonus. So understand what's happening here. This ruthless greedy oligarch who is the CEO of this company, whose salary was $13 million, decided that when choosing between making more money for this company and myself or actually allowing people who rely on this cancer treatment that my company sells, you know, to just keep getting the drug at the same cost when people are struggling, I mean, of course, he chose to maximize profits because that's what we expect the effect of capitalism to do to these companies. They all don't care about individuals like these aren't human beings who take their medication. These are just numbers on a board to them. They couldn't care less about the health and well-being to their customers. You know, their customers that they have now can't afford this. And, you know, they end up dying because they can't get this cancer treatment. They know that more, you know, customers will come along eventually. So to them, the short term profits are what matters the most. This isn't actually about helping people. It's about making money. And this is why the fact that we have commodified our healthcare system is so egregious. When you have this profit incentive, that is going to be what motivates these companies to act. It's not like they're going to act in an altruistic matter because they want to save lives. You know, they're motivated by money and profit, which is why it's so disgusting, which is why we need to decomodify healthcare, move to a national system, start with Medicare for all and then build upon that. Because, like, when you have hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies making money on the basis of what's going to line my pockets, I mean, I don't have to explain what happens. We see what happens first hand in the United States of America. So I really, you know, I give Katie Porter credit, although, you know, I will say again, I don't want to overemphasize the importance of these types of public lashings and grillings, but I will say that the fact that she supports legislation to back up her anger, it really, you know, makes this exchange a lot more meaningful. And I hope that other lawmakers learn from her because what she did there was a masterclass in holding somebody accountable, you know, publicly. So the customers who buy cell gene who have a choice to fuel that do and the people who are paying attention and voting understand that, you know, if you want this to stop, then you have to stop electing lawmakers who are taking money from these types of companies who actually support legislation that do want to reign in these companies with the law, not with more deregulation, because of course, if you deregulate and you give them, you know, even more autonomy to do what they want to do, they're not going to do the good thing, like they're not going to choose to be good people and good companies. So, you know, you have to legislate this type of behavior out of existence, regulate it away. That's the only way you're going to stop this. But kudos to Katie Porter.