From Cancer Patients to Taxpayers, We Are All Paying the ‘Hugin Cancer Tax’

Menendez for Senate and Ryan Alexander · October 3, 2018

From cancer patients to taxpayers, we are all paying the ‘Hugin Cancer Tax’

New Brunswick, NJ – The Menendez for Senate campaign today launched HuginCancerTax.com, a fully-documented website highlighting greedy drug company CEO Bob Hugin’s history of enriching himself at the expense of everyone else.

“From ripping off Medicare, to stockpiling cash overseas to avoid taxes, to blocking generic drugs and charging hundreds of dollars for a pill that costs pennies to make, we are all paying the price for Bob Hugin’s greed.  We are all paying the Hugin Cancer Tax,” said Menendez for Senate Communications Director Steven Sandberg.  “Bob Hugin says he’s proud of Celgene, but for someone who cost taxpayers billions and hiked the price of a vital cancer drug three times in one year, he should be ashamed of himself.  Bob Hugin will be exposed as a man who got rich off others’ suffering.  He has never been on our side and never will be.”

HuginCancerTax.com documents how Celgene was successfully sued by Boston Children’s Hospital for $198.5 million in a patent misuse case, how it parked nearly 80% of its profits overseas to avoid paying taxes, how it minimized dangerous risks associated with the drug Otezla, and how it abused the law to block competition from lower-cost generic drug manufacturers.  The website also chronicles how Bob Hugin paid $280 million to avoid trial in a whistleblower lawsuit alleging he and Celgene broke federal law, defrauded Medicare and Medicaid, lied to doctors and patients about their drugs’ potentially fatal side-effects, promoted drugs for unapproved uses, and engaged in an illegal physician kickback scheme. With over 40 pages of fully-documented facts, HuginCancerTax.com also details how Bob Hugin doubled the price of Revlimid on American cancer patients during his tenure while giving steep discounts to Russia and China.

###