A majority of the U. S. Senate voted to confirm former pharmaceutical industry executive and lobbyist Alex Azar as the next Health and Human Services secretary.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A majority of the U. S. Senate on Wednesday
voted to confirm former pharmaceutical industry executive and
lobbyist Alex Azar as the next Health and Human Services
secretary.
Azar will oversee the Trump administration’s response to the
opioid epidemic, its efforts to weaken the Affordable Care Act,
commonly called Obamacare, and address rising prescription drug
prices. The Senate voted 55-43 in favor of his nomination.
Most Democrats opposed Azar’s nomination, and several delivered
impassioned speeches on Tuesday and Wednesday that criticized
Azar for raising drug prices while he was at U. S. pharmaceutical
firm Eli Lilly & Co, where he spent five years as
president of its U. S. unit. Several patient and consumer advocacy
groups opposed Azar’s nomination because of drug price increases
at Lilly under his watch.
“Mr. Azar’s nomination is a perfect encapsulation of the
president’s broken promises on prescription drugs and healthcare
overall,” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said on Tuesday in a
Senate floor speech.
Republicans and some medical groups said Azar, who also served as
general counsel and deputy secretary for Health and Human
Services under former Republican President George W. Bush, had
extensive qualifications for the job.
Trump’s first health secretary, former U. S. Representative
Tom Price, resigned in September amid a furor over his use of
expensive taxpayer-funded private charter jets for government
travel.
(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
