Washington, DC – Donald Trump’s selected candidate to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, is a pharmaceutical industry profiteer whose senior role with Eli Lilly during periods of criminal practices and prescription drug price gouging is disqualifying.

During Alex Azar’s time in top leadership at Eli Lilly, insulin prices nearly quadrupled. In fact, since the 1990’s, Eli Lilly has raised the price of its insulin drugs—a lifesaving prescription drug that diabetics rely on – by 1,214%, price gouging so shocking that it has led to multiple government investigations and lawsuits. During Azar’s leadership, Eli Lilly conducted illegal off-label marketing and allegedly bribed foreign governments for lucrative deals.   In 2009, while Azar was Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Communications, Eli Lilly was slapped with largest criminal fine for an individual corporation ever imposed in a United States criminal prosecution of any kind.  In 2012, while Azar was President of Lilly USA, Eli Lilly paid $30 million to settle SEC allegations of violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act alleged to have occurred in Russia, China, Brazil, and Poland.

Alex Azar’s past as a pharma profiteer disqualifies him from DHHS. To learn more about Azar the Price Gouging Czar, click here to download a full white paper examining his time at Eli Lilly.

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