By Yasmeen Abutaleb For Reuters
Published: 21:11 GMT, 14 January 2019 | Updated: 22:15 GMT, 15 January 2019
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A top US lawmaker launched an investigation into pharmaceutical industry pricing practices on Monday, less than a week after he and fellow Democrats introduced legislation aimed at lowering medicine prices.
Representative Elijah Cummings, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, sent letters to 12 drugmakers seeking information on price increases, investment in research and development, and corporate strategies to preserve market share and pricing power, his office said in a statement.
Those companies included giants like Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.
Four of them (Novo Nordisk, Amgen, Celgene, and Novartis) said they were reviewing the request. The other drug companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Representative Cummings letter suggests that the companies' pricing schemes may be unfairly driving up costs to a federal subsidy program that covers medications for the