{"id":601801,"date":"2026-04-23T15:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/601801\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T15:23:08","slug":"unacceptable-lawmakers-react-to-revelations-from-icijs-cancer-calculus-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/601801\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Unacceptable\u2019: Lawmakers react to revelations from ICIJ\u2019s Cancer Calculus investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers and experts in several countries have called for pharmaceutical companies to be more transparent about drug pricing and tax dealings following revelations from ICIJ\u2019s Cancer Calculus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The investigation, led by ICIJ and 47 media partners, explores how Merck & Co. \u2014 known as MSD outside the United States and Canada \u2014 keeps huge revenues flowing while pricing out many patients and governments from its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda.<\/p>\n

ICIJ\u2019s investigation revealed that Merck operates with a gross lack of transparency in pricing, even as the cost of Keytruda strains public health systems and counterfeiters reap massive windfalls from duping the expensive drug. The findings have so far elicited widespread reactions from politicians, government agencies, and health and financial accountability experts.<\/p>\n

Merck\u2019s tax maneuvers highlighted in the U.S.<\/p>\n

The international collaboration found that Merck reduced its U.S. taxes<\/a> by recording profits in lower-tax jurisdictions. In its 2025 annual report, Merck disclosed it paid around $1.6 billion in U.S. income taxes, compared to $4.5 billion in other countries.<\/p>\n

At a U.S. congressional hearing on corporate taxation on Tuesday, Zorka Milin, head of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition, confirmed those findings.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite making more than half of its sales at outrageous prices to American customers, Merck paid more taxes to Switzerland than it did to the U.S.,\u201d Milin said at the Democrat-led hearing. \u201cFor decades, major American pharma companies have been moving their profits and sometimes also their factories overseas. Their customers are mostly American, their intellectual property is developed here with support of American tax dollars, but somehow their profits are Irish, Swiss, Dutch.\u201d<\/p>\n

European lawmakers slam tax breaks, opaque pricing<\/p>\n

In the Netherlands, ICIJ partners Trouw<\/a> and Het Financieele Dagblad<\/a> found that MSD received more than $1 billion in tax breaks in the Netherlands last year under a tax regime called the \u201cinnovation box,\u201d which grants companies a reduced corporate tax rate for \u201cinnovative activities.\u201d The program was meant to offset the cost of research and development to foster innovation, but the Dutch journalists revealed that more than 90% of its tax advantages benefit three big corporations \u2014 MSD, Booking.com and the Dutch company ASML \u2014 for older inventions.<\/p>\n

Following the reporting, Luc Stultiens, a member of the largest Dutch opposition alliance, asked the state secretary for finance<\/a> to clarify the \u201ceconomic justification\u201d of the innovation box for those companies.<\/p>\n

Stultiens also raised questions about MSD receiving financial benefits despite ceasing many of its research operations in the country. For example, though Keytruda was originally produced in the Dutch province of North Brabant, it is now manufactured in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you explain to ordinary taxpayers and SME [small- or medium-sized enterprise] owners that they have to pay an extra billion in taxes annually for a tax rebate for a single company that has moved virtually all of its activities abroad?\u201d he asked in an official inquiry.<\/p>\n

In Belgium, opposition parties sought greater transparency on confidential agreements with pharmaceutical companies. Between Jan. 2016 and June 2025, Belgium spent nearly $3 billion on Keytruda, straining the public health budget, ICIJ partners De Tijd<\/a>, Le Soir<\/a> and Knack<\/a> reported. Six opposition members took issue with the opaque nature of the price negotiations.<\/p>\n

No other medication is more expensive, yet the pharmaceutical company keeps the actual price secret<\/p>\n

\u2013 Austria\u2019s Green Party health spokesperson Eva Hammerer and parliamentary group leader Daniel Zadra<\/p>\n

Citing Cancer Calculus reporting that shows the list price of Keytruda varies wildly across countries, Rajae Maouane, a member of the Chamber of Representatives, said during a parliamentary debate that \u201cprice is indeed a choice, a negotiation, and not an inevitability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health minister Frank Vandenbroucke told members that they \u201cmust accept that confidential negotiations take place.\u201d He also passed the buck to European lawmakers as he cited experts who told Belgian journalists that MSD doesn\u2019t share enough data with governments on which patients are likely to respond to Keytruda.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not Belgian legislation that falls short here, but European legislation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The opposition called for hearings on price-setting for pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

The issue of transparency was also raised in Austria. ICIJ partners profil<\/a> and Paper Trail Media, whose work in Austria appeared in Der Standard<\/a>, showed that Keytruda is the country\u2019s single largest medication expense, costing a whopping 6,800 euros per standard 200 milligram dose (about $8,000) without discounts. That\u2019s despite research by the Swiss nonprofit Public Eye, which calculated a fair price for the drug to be 80 euros (about $94) per dose.<\/p>\n

In response, the Green Party demanded fair and transparent prices<\/a> for lifesaving drugs in a parliamentary inquiry in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo other medication is more expensive, yet the pharmaceutical company keeps the actual price secret,\u201d the party\u2019s health spokesperson Eva Hammerer and parliamentary group leader Daniel Zadra said in a press release. \u201cThis lack of transparency is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in Finland, where experts told ICIJ partner Yle<\/a> that Keytruda\u2019s burdensome price is partly to blame for the country\u2019s lag in cancer care, lawmaker Marko Asell<\/a> asked the Speaker of the Parliament to clarify how the government would \u201censure that effective new cancer drugs are introduced in Finland equally and sufficiently.\u201d He also asked for clarity on how the government decides how much to spend on cancer patients and how to ensure that policy is made in \u201ca transparent and ethically sustainable manner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mexican authorities rush to reassure citizens<\/p>\n

In Mexico, ICIJ and media partners identified three incidents of counterfeit Keytruda supplied to public hospitals. In an interview with Univision<\/a>, one cancer patient, Francisco Ch\u00e1vez, described life-altering health impacts after he was administered an adulterated batch of Keytruda at the Elvia Carrillo Puerto public hospital in Mexico\u2019s Yucat\u00e1n Peninsula. He later learned through a national health alert that he had been administered a second tainted batch at the same hospital.<\/p>\n

In response to the investigation\u2019s findings, Mexico\u2019s Ministry of Health released a statement<\/a> reassuring citizens that \u201cmedications used in the public sector meet strict safety, quality, and efficacy standards.\u201d Regarding Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s experience, the health ministry said that \u201cauthorities acted immediately: the use of the product was suspended, the corresponding agencies were notified, and medical attention was provided.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in a statement to ICIJ<\/a>, Anthony Zook, Merck\u2019s associate vice president for global security, said that \u201cMexico is a location that has our attention due to the severity of the illicit trade situation impacting patients.\u201d He also confirmed that the company knows of at least one Mexican patient who died after he was \u201cinfused\u201d with counterfeit Keytruda.<\/p>\n

MSD has filed 20 criminal complaints related to counterfeit Keytruda with the Mexican Attorney General\u2019s Office, Zook added.<\/p>\n

Contributing reporters: Lars Bov\u00e9 (De Tijd), Gaby de Groot (Het Financieele Dagblad), Kristof Clerix (Knack), Jo\u00ebl Matriche\u2069 (Le Soir), Stefan Melichar (profil), Minna Knus-Gal\u00e1n\u2069 (Yle), Isabella Cota and Brenda Medina (ICIJ)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lawmakers and experts in several countries have called for pharmaceutical companies to be more transparent about drug pricing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-601801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}