The Shocking Candace Owens Hunter Biden Moment No One Saw Coming
PDS Published 05/25/2026
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Trump administration is now investigating Hasan Piker, Candace Owens Hunter Biden situation was wild. And we're still seeing fallout.
we've got to talk about how American pharmaceutical companies are exploiting the system and making your life harder to save.
and why everyone was panicking that California was going to get blown up this weekend. we're talking about all of that on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. Your Monday, Memorial Day show, starting with this.
there is a state of emergency in California. Parts of six cities have been evacuated. And we spent all weekend waiting for this thing to explode. Literally.
if you haven't even seen a little bit of what I'm talking about, I'm talking about the crisis that's had much of Orange County in an absolute panic since Friday. all because of this aerospace manufacturing plant in Garden Grove.
because you see the 7000 gallon tank full of highly toxic, highly flammable chemical called methyl methacrylate. well, for some reason that's still unclear.
it's starting to get a little hot, then too hot, and then just kept getting hotter and hotter and hotter. The temperature was 90 degrees yesterday morning.
It was 77 degrees when we backed out. It's been averaging about a degree an hour, increasing now that was Friday.
And at that time, authorities were certain that there were only two possible outcomes here.
The tank ruptures, and 7000 gallons of this hazardous liquid spills into the surrounding area, making a fun little mess or 2. The tank literally explodes into a fireball.
That one official compared it to those railroad tanker explosions. Which gives me an excuse to play this video. breaking point.
you know, and actually since the tank in Garden Grove is next to two other tanks, that would mean more like 34,000 gallons going boom. Not just seven.
so it was pretty frightening when the fire chief was like, yeah, whichever disaster it ends up being, this thing is inevitable. I cannot emphasize this is not precautionary.
this thing is going to fail. We don't know when. right. It's not just about the explosion itself.
even if you're outside the blast radius, you're looking at a ton of noxious fumes going whichever way the wind blows.
and with methyl methacrylate, that means at one end of the spectrum, irritated skin and eyes, or at the other end, potentially respiratory issues, neurological symptoms and organ damage.
and while it hasn't been proven to cause cancer, long-term exposure has been linked to cardiovascular disorders. so then Gavin Newsom declares a state of emergency.
and roughly 50,000 residents were ordered to evacuate their homes, with the lucky families crowding into shelters. And then the less lucky ones having to sleep in their cars. intense.
I'm scared because I don't know what's going to happen.
and I don't know if anything that already is in the air is going to affect us.
This is my hometown. And I'm sorry. And I'm worried for everyone.
with all this, you have the county's fire chief trying to reassure the people there. Your protection, your life safety is our paramount responsibility right now.
We know you're out of your homes. We want to get you back. But we cannot do that until it's deemed safe.
So then what you saw is that on Saturday night, very, very carefully, firefighters approached the tank. They had a good look at it, and they actually came back with some good news.
What they found was a potential crack in the tank, which normally wouldn't sound like a good thing, but it turns out that's actually the best case scenario, because if there's a crack
that could possibly relieve some of the pressure that's inside the tank, making an explosion less likely, and yes, it might leak, but that's better than blowing up.
And a slow leak is actually much more manageable than everything just spilling everywhere. But still, you're in this very tense situation.
I mean, the tank had already begun to bulge outwards, so people are just kind of waiting for it to blow at any moment. making matters more complicated.
you had firefighters only getting near it at night because when the sun's out, the background temperature is higher and so is the risk.
so during the day you had thousands and thousands of people kind of collectively wincing as they waited for the sun to go back down.
and in the meantime, you had firefighters spraying the tank with water in an attempt to cool it down.
and they laid down sand around the perimeter to kind of contain any spillage of the chemical. hopefully. right.
and then as another night came to California, they ventured back into the belly of the beast for another inspection of the tank. And this time they came back with even better news.
also for context here, when he's talking about an explosion, they are happy to report that the threat is now off the table.
that threat has been eliminated. and the tank has released its pressure.
and additionally to that, the temperature has been stabilized and actually reducing. It is currently 93 degrees, down from 100 degrees.
well, that's wonderful to hear. the situation still not over.
because not only are evacuation orders still in place as officials make the area safe again.
you've got people looking for someone to blame for this huge scare and disruption to their lives. at least with that, there is a very obvious culprit: GCN Aerospace, the company that's responsible for the chemical tank.
and so actually there's a law firm already seeking to get a class action lawsuit against them, demanding accountability for residents facing evacuation orders, property disruption, potential health risks, loss of use of their homes, related expenses and diminished property values.
in the meantime, you also have the Orange County district attorney saying he's investigating the company. Its apology letter that it issued today is far from adequate.
50,000 of my constituents are currently displaced with no idea about what the potential impact of this malfeasance might be for their community.
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and we're going to have to wait to see what comes next there where we are getting updates is that shooting outside of the White House this weekend that left the suspect dead and a bystander injured. Right.
according to a report from yesterday, the unidentified bystander is in serious but stable condition and the gunshot wound that they sustained was described as not life threatening.
but right now we don't know who shot the person, whether it was the suspect or Secret Service. what we do know is that an investigation is underway to determine who shot them.
and you had Secret Service also releasing a statement saying, we are grateful.
no officers were injured and appreciate the strong support from our federal and local partners, adding our thoughts are also with the innocent bystander who was wounded during this incident.
the Secret Service is hopeful he will make a full recovery. as far as what went down at around 6 p.m.
on Saturday, the suspect apparently approached a Secret Service checkpoint, pulled a gun from a bag and opened fire, with officers returning fire, shooting him.
and he was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, all while Trump was at the White House as this played out.
authorities are also investigating just how much gunfire was exchanged between both parties.
but based on footage from reporters who were at the White House when it happened, it seemed like a lot. because right now we can't see the shooting itself.
it could be heard in video posted by several journalists, including this one from an ABC News reporter.
oh no.
though I will say you might not have seen that one, because the one around this that has gone the most viral is this one. what is that?
what is that? I don't like.
now, as far as what we know about the suspect, who was identified as 21-year-old Nassir Best from Maryland, it turns out he's actually been on the Secret Service's radar for around a year.
was recently flagged for walking around the White House complex inquiring on how to gain access to various entrances.
then in June, he was arrested for misdemeanor unlawful entry after blocking a vehicle from entering the White House, and reportedly told officers that he was Jesus Christ and wanted to get arrested.
then again in July, entered a restricted White House grounds area after ignoring commands to stop. and he was eventually issued a stay-away order at a hearing that he didn't attend.
and according to reports, the idea that Best thought that he was Jesus Christ appears to have impacted other areas of his life, reportedly cutting off contact from his closest friends.
and last year unfollowed many on social media, angry with them for not believing that he was Jesus. you also had a friend saying that he had a really rough senior year of high school.
he dealt with bullying and getting into fights and that, quote, nothing really went his way.
right now, a more specific motive behind why he opened fire outside of the White House is not clear.
the Washington Post reporting that in 2022, when he registered to vote, he listed himself as a Republican. But he also didn't have any public political statements.
his friend even actually described him as apolitical, as right now there's a lot that we have left to learn. but with all this, we're also seeing a lot of different kinds of responses. Right.
with tons of people focusing on how this is just the latest incident of violence either targeting the president or within his vicinity.
the Post putting out a piece arguing that this should force us to question how divisive political speech has become.
you had some arguing that the focus should be on the president himself, with one professor saying tone from the top models expected behavior.
if you create conditions where hate and violence become more acceptable, people are going to act on that. sometimes it will be supporters, sometimes it will be opponents.
as far as Trump's response, he was actually very quick to try to use it to support construction of the White House ballroom, again insisting that it was needed for safety and security reasons.
and he actually wrote on Truth Social that the suspect, quote, had a violent history and possible obsession with our country's most cherished structure.
adding this event is one month removed from the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting and goes to show how important it is for all future presidents to get what will be the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington, DC,
saying the national security of our country demands it. and then actually this morning we got news that the DOJ cited this weekend shooting in a court filing demanding that construction be allowed to continue arguing.
this second attack on the president this month underscores the critical need for top level, state-of-the-art security at the White House, including the ballroom, a knitted, unified, cohesive part of the East Wing project,
which is vital for national security and is being constructed to ensure that the president can perform his constitutional duties in a safe and heavily secured facility.
and that also notably coming as Republicans just handed the White House a major L when it comes to the ballroom by opting to not include $1 billion of security funding in an immigration bill. right.
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and then also what was interesting with the coverage around this is which reactions got attention, because it very much feels like lately Fox News has been on Hasan Piker watch and they actually ran a whole headline accusing him of mocking the shooting.
right.
and that's because as the news was breaking you had Hasan writing sources tell me the ballroom is safe. please, God.
or with that being another meme parody of the Tim Pool tweet around Charlie Kirk. where Pool wrote: sources tell me Charlie is stable. please, God.
and then as far as Piker, you had him later mocking Republicans who have stumped for the ballroom. If there was a ballroom, this would not be happening. One can assume that this is only happening because there is no ballroom.
as a matter of fact, because if they knew that there was a ballroom, you would basically stave off all potential shooters in the future because they would know how powerful the ballroom is.
or because it appears to be kind of just a small part of a grander situation.
I mean, this wasn't even the only headline that Hasan made on Fox News this weekend.
because Hasan is now reportedly being subpoenaed by the feds for ties to terrorism.
and it appears that it's all over this aid convoy to Cuba that he joined earlier this year with the organization CodePink, which describes itself as a feminist grassroots organization working to end U.S.
warfare and imperialism.
it was reportedly this trip meant to be a humanitarian mission to deliver essential supplies for the country after Trump imposed a fuel blockade.
now reportedly the Treasury has ordered both him and the co-founder of CodePink to produce financial, logistical and communication information, believing that they have ties to extremist movements.
would also appear that it all stems from the belief that they may have stayed at a hotel that the State Department has put on a Cuba restricted list.
and because businesses on that list are thought to be, quote, under the control of or acting for or on behalf of Cuba's military or intelligence operations.
they're considered state sponsors of terrorism. and we don't know what's happening behind the scenes.
you had Hasan publicly hitting back, saying: one, the American government would rather try to criminalize delivering aid to a country we've starved than punish the Epstein class. two.
he claimed that he stayed at a hotel approved by the State Department, and adding the government got duped by a fucking viral Twitter post. I'm losing my mind.
three, he accused the right-wing influencer Nick Shirley of actually staying in an off-limits hotel. right.
that's the guy who went viral for claiming that Minnesota was overtaken by fake Somali-run daycares.
the specifics there is that the hotel that Shirley admitted staying at is prohibited because it has ties to the Cuban government, but it is also not part of the same terrorism-linked list that Hasan's accused of violating.
but with all that you now have activists, including the co-founder of CodePink, inquiring.
any sort of crackdown here is going to have devastating consequences for people on the island.
or they're asking whether taking medical supplies to pediatric hospitals in Cuba is now a crime. saving the lives of babies is a crime. this administration is beyond grotesque.
but for now, while we wait to see how this plays out, you should definitely subscribe to stay in the loop. got to pass the question off to you. what are your thoughts with this situation? the White House shooting or the first story in our first block today?
and then there's more we got to dive into in just a minute.
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but then diving right back into the news. we've got to talk about this situation.
it was actually one of the most requested stories over on the text line. right in that is the Candace Owens Hunter Biden crossover collab interview.
starting with this moment, which might actually be one of the craziest developments in the whole MAGA civil war.
the only way I got it is when they just tore off all my clothes.
tarred and feathered me and put me in the center of town and said, look at him, and I survived.
when you survive that, you kind of go, what am I going to do with my life? I'm really sorry that I contributed to that. like, I just feel really shitty.
like I feel guilty because, like, hearing you talk about, I mean, basically having the worst moments of your life, I just saw you as a caricature.
and it was definitely, like I said, like feeling gaslit by the political machine, convinced that it was just the left that partook in this political machine.
and I just, like, really want to say, like, genuinely like, I'm so sorry that I just didn't even consider he's a crackhead. and like, you know what?
that's actually a very relatable thing. and it's not who I want to be. and I think I've. yeah, I've come a long way from that in general. a lot of people were initially citing and hyped about this interview.
you had a lot of people thinking it was just gonna be filled with vitriol, at least, you know, you'd have a ton of spicy moments. and actually, in contrast, it was incredibly tame and conciliatory.
legitimately more than half of it was a very earnest conversation about addiction. right. because Hunter is an addict. also religion and grief. and right at the top.
Candace said that she was not going to put Hunter in a position to say anything bad about his father, because she felt it would be unfair.
but they also focused a lot on the growing divisions within MAGA, the future of the movement, and the need for both sides to stop hating each other as the enemy so we can find some common ground.
and this was just super significant for a number of reasons, including Candace has become one of the biggest voices in the MAGA civil war.
so it was really notable, even just on that front that she sat down with Hunter Biden and actually talked about what comes next after, you know, so many people have split with Trump.
right and during the interview, she said that Charlie Kirk's assassination was a big awakening for her and made her draw lines in the sand. we still don't know what happened to Charlie Kirk.
there's zero interest. that's another thing that just completely for me was, like, done with Trump. what this has done to me and I've said this, I'm just done with politics.
I'm just done with politics because I can't even begin to comprehend it.
and again, that element of gaslighting that's happening here, where they're pretending that the people who are noticing that none of this is making sense are the crazy ones.
it is the most infuriating thing, and it's just fully removed the scales in my eyes. and I've stopped with this left versus right, Democrat or Republican.
I'm like, this is sheer evil versus good. this is like sheer evil, by the way.
that was actually something that both Candace and Hunter hit on a lot throughout the interview right there.
the idea that the Trump political machine has pitted both sides against each other, when really we should be fighting together against the machine itself.
coming from someone who you've attacked and politically, you've, you know, had all of your criticism, which I got no problem with.
and we disagree on so many things, but I listen to you and I go right on when are people kind of kind of wake up to the fact and it's not left or right?
this is a really, really horrible group of people. they're pulling strings that impact us.
and they make us think that because you and I disagree on, you know, that the graduated tax rate
or some social issue is that we are sworn enemies, not I mean, not just, you know, like sworn enemies, that I deserve violence.
and you would Hunter going on to say that Trump totally killed the mutual respect that used to exist across the aisle by driving people towards extremism and violence. part of what you're describing is politics.
in memoriam. you know, part of it.
but something's changed and is there is a meanness.
a willingness to adopt very, very un-American tactics.
against our opponents because it become a zero-sum game. it's not just that I disagree with you.
it's you need to be punished. you need to be punished for what you believe.
we're saying that Trump's made it so that any source of disagreement, even on the tiniest issue, is a cause for war.
and that kind of rhetoric coming from the president and others with authority has directly translated into real threats of violence. I know where that started.
and that started when Donald Trump from rally stages started the “Where’s Hunter” idea, call-and-response rounds.
and then they printed t-shirts and then they made hats and then they made mugs. “Where’s Hunter?” and then they showed at my door.
the way that they got there is this New York Post published on the front page its cover an aerial view of my home with the address.
actually even Candace acknowledged this is something that is unique to the Trump era. and now it's getting dirtier.
the game people are playing is dirtier, and it is about wanting you to feel unsafe.
like for me it was me changing my mind on Israel and suddenly I'm getting the New York Post treatment and I'm getting all these people
coming after me to do these tactics where you're trying to destroy people, that feels very, very new to me.
right. and all of this has led to Candace just being exhausted with Trump.
I'm like, how are we going to do four years of just being gaslit every five seconds and told that MAGA literally is not MAGA anymore.
I'm so far off the Trump chain, he's—oh no. and I'm not even saying that it's embarrassing, but it is embarrassing.
it is embarrassing because we got behind him as the answer to corruption. we thought he was going to be this outsider. he's going to go to DC, he's going to drain the swamp.
and then he became the Loch Ness Monster. how much more money does just Trump family need? I mean, like literally how much more money do you need that you're going to allow this to happen?
don't you just want to have now the legacy of being a good president?
and at that point, you also had Hunter noting it the right and the media at large come after him for alleged corruption.
meanwhile, Don Jr. and Jared Kushner, they've massively enriched themselves from this presidency in ways that go far beyond anything that he was ever accused of.
so when it came to the whole scandal involving Hunter's laptop, he and Candace actually both highlighted how the whole ordeal was kind of just small potatoes in comparison.
you know what, the laptop proved that you were crackhead. yeah. there you go.
is the laptop absolutely proved nothing, but it became this cultural touchstone.
it was like it embodied the Biden crime family. I was one of the chief people that was really angry about it and it did.
that was the exact reason why when I reexamined it, it was the gaslighting. it's the same reason why I'm angry with Trump over the Epstein thing. it's like, I can't come back from media gaslighting.
I think it was a historian that wrote on X exactly how I feel, which is I wish I could go back to the days where I thought like Hunter Biden's art was the most corrupt deal that was done in politics.
and when it comes to splitting from Trump, she says that others share her feelings as well, with Hunter praising Candace for using her platform, arguing that this interview could be a model for those who have left MAGA
to find a way forward and have real conversations. if we could have this conversation and genuinely, authentically
believe that I think just opens the door for me and a few other people without being,
you know, with all humility, like, you know, maybe a few other people.
even though they mostly focus on the extreme polarization that the country is witnessing right now, he said that he still has hope for the future in our ability to move past this moment in time and come together across differences. This is a cycle.
there will always be really bad people. we will always be disappointed in the end with leadership. we will always have corruption.
it doesn't mean that we need to accept it. it doesn't mean that we don't need to fight against it. I have absolute hope.
I really, truly still believe in America, even with all of its faults.
this is truly been one of the most powerful discussions that we've ever had. right into that point.
if you go to the comment section, overall you saw people very impressed with the conversation saying that it was refreshing to see two people have a respectful discussion based on common ground, praising them
for putting humanity ahead of politics and showing people that we can still have civil conversations.
but then also, and this is the case with a lot of social media, if you go other places, for example on Twitter, well there you also had praise. there were plenty of others who were frustrated for a number of reasons.
had some mad at Candace for going too easy on Hunter, thinking that she should not be extending the olive branch.
you also had others saying that it was rich for Candace to talk about how divisive politics has become, how she played a part in driving the polarization to get more views, raising that he's profited off these divides for years.
so it's too little, too late now.
and then you also had some saying, you know, while it is important to acknowledge that this looks like a big step for Candace that she's taking some accountability.
they also don't want everyone to start painting her suddenly as a credible beacon of truth, saying she still spreads multiple conspiracies, including some in this interview.
others saying, you know, they won't be surprised if she goes back to trans investigating next week.
and, you know, with all that, I then got to pass the question off to you, what do you make of this interview and Candace's general shift? Do you buy any of it? Do you feel like it's genuine or not? any and all thoughts?
I'd love to hear from you in those comments down below.
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then diving right back into news that we should talk about: people are dying that otherwise might not have so that other people can make more money. that's a statement that I'm guessing a lot of you agree with in this story.
it's about just one way that that dynamic may play out in the world today.
and it starts a few months ago, near the end of last year, when the CEOs of several major pharmaceutical companies gathered in the White House.
and Trump, our billionaire president who has refused to divest from his business empire that's used his name to rake in millions or overseas business deals, who's traded thousands of stocks and companies that he regulates,
who nearly doubled his net worth after just a year in office,
who just recently announced a $1.8 billion slush fund to reward his supporters and allies while freeing himself from a tax audit that could have cost him more than $100 million,
he promised that these CEOs, who earn more in a year than the average American earns in an entire lifetime, had agreed to drastically lower their prices for American patients.
starting next year, American drug prices will come down fast and furious and will soon be among the lowest in the developed world.
this represents the greatest victory for patient affordability in the history of American health care. by far. a month later, it was 2026.
and every pharmaceutical company led by someone in that room released higher list prices for at least some of their drugs.
according to the New York Times, the drugs listed on Trump can cost American patients up to hundreds or thousands of dollars, while a patient walking into a German pharmacy pays next to nothing.
and so there's a lot to unpack as far as what Trump claimed companies and their CEOs would do to lower drug prices. and right now I'm going to focus on one of those companies, one of their CEOs.
and one of those drugs. so the company is Merck and Co. it's one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. it brings in around $65 billion in revenue just last year. CEO is Robert Davis.
he reportedly took home at least $20 million in total compensation in 2025, and he declared 100% support for Trump's drug price-lowering initiative. and then the drug is pembrolizumab.
although it's better known by its brand name Keytruda. and it's often described as the best-selling drug on Earth. and that's for a good reason.
it's revolutionized cancer treatment by switching up the focus from going after tumors directly to empowering the immune system to fight. it's currently approved in the United States to treat 19 types of tumors, including skin, lung, breast, and colon.
and it's also helped countless people live longer, healthier lives.
success of this drug alone, it's one of the reasons that Merck is now ranked number 65 on the Fortune 500. Keytruda revenues alone
are greater than McDonald's or the entire National Football League, and Davis, who first joined Merck just a few months before his 82-year-old father died of lung cancer, once said in an interview:
I wonder what would have happened if that drug had been available ten years ago when my father was going through his battle. that's a fair question. but also here's the thing.
you may also be a question that sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives all around the world are still asking today,
not because the drug doesn't exist, but because for them it might as well not exist, given how expensive it can be.
and they may well have Robert Davis and the rest of the team at Merck to thank for that.
that is at least according to this massive investigation that was published in April by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in partnership with 47 media outlets in 37 countries.
an investigation purporting to show how Merck has exploited regulatory loopholes, taking advantage of the patent system, and engaged in tireless lobbying to keep prices high by delaying
cheaper versions of the drug from reaching hundreds of thousands of cancer patients in the coming years.
but also with all that, let's start with a simple question, which is how expensive is Keytruda really? well, it depends.
the ICJ said the list price for a year's worth of the drug ranges from roughly $65,000 in South Africa to $130,000 in Colombia to more than $200,000 in the United States.
actually reports have it up 6% from last year, despite Trump's claims. the relative affordability, it depends not only on the price but also on income.
in the US, for example, someone earning the median income can afford fewer than five doses.
but in South Africa, a person earning the median income can't even buy one dose in a year.
similarly, you had another study finding that treatment for six months of Keytruda for head and neck cancer cost six times the average monthly income in the U.S.
but that same treatment also costs 43 times the average monthly income in Pakistan and 80 times the average in India.
then at the same time, Americans who earn the median income can afford less Keytruda than those earning the median income in some wealthy European countries, such as France and Belgium. though we will say in the U.S.
that the amount that someone pays can vary dramatically depending on their location, their insurance, and other factors.
with the estimated costs for a typical 200 milligram treatment reportedly ranging from just under $6,000 to almost $44,000.
and so with all this, there are people around the world who are just desperate for this drug.
ICJ, for instance, said that they found 632 cases in which patients across 51 countries turned to GoFundMe and other crowdfunding sites to raise money for Keytruda treatments.
meanwhile, other patients have reportedly turned to the black market to get the drug for less money, even though they have no way of knowing if it's real or counterfeit. then other patients in need of the drug
have ended up in protracted legal battles to get their hands on it. but not all of them actually live long enough for a decision to be made. and so then the next question that pops up is, well, why is it so expensive?
and one typical answer is that the company has to recover the money that it invested into researching and developing the drug.
and this is Merck CEO in front of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in 2024: remarkable progress like this does not come cheaply for Keytruda alone.
between 2011 and 2023, Merck has invested $46 billion in development, and we expect to invest another $18 billion into the 2030s.
but according to the ICJ, Merck has already more than recouped its investment, bringing in roughly $163 billion from Keytruda sales since 2014,
while also sinking nearly $75 billion into dividends for shareholders and $43 billion into share buybacks.
also a group called Public Eye, which is a nonprofit that's based in Switzerland, found that Keytruda's R&D cost was only around $1.9 billion anyway.
that's insane because that's around just 4% of what Davis claimed that the company spent.
and it's roughly 1% of the drug's global revenue since its launch in 2014, or what Public Eye's pharma specialists told the ICJ, that Davis's figures are absolutely unverifiable and adding Merck could throw any figure they want as high as possible to justify the exorbitant price tag,
and saying the price of Keytruda is excessively high, not to cover the R&D costs or hedge risks, but to make maximum profits.
and one reason that Merck may be able to get away with this is because of a lack of competition, and the company appears hell-bent on keeping it that way as long as possible.
one of the ways to do that is through the patent system. patent process purposely gives companies more time to dominate so that they can recover research and development costs and earn profits to fund future research.
Merck, they've found additional patents to extend that time period. and it's a strategy known as evergreen.
and overall, the ICJ found that Merck and other cancer treatment companies have filed at least 1212 patent applications in 53 countries, regions and territories,
which could help suppress competition and keep prices high for 14 years after its original patents expire in 2028.
and then also on top of this, the investigation also found that Merck may have also encouraged doctors to prescribe a higher dosage of Keytruda than is needed,
which, according to researchers at the World Health Organization, would cost the world an estimated $5 billion just for lung cancer patients by 2040.
and they reportedly found that the company had been pouring money into Keytruda-related payments to doctors and healthcare professionals, spending nearly $52 million from 2018 to 2024.
in the U.S. alone, you had some doctors receiving more than a million bucks apiece.
and despite also making more than half of its Keytruda sales in the United States, only around a quarter of the company's income tax payments went to the U.S. government.
now with all this, Davis reportedly declined to comment.
but the company's senior vice president defended their pricing practices, telling the ICJ they have a long history of responsibly pricing our medicines to reflect their value to patients, payers and society.
and adding in a separate letter that the company is working to ensure healthcare is affordable, efficient, equitable and sustainable on a global scale. but of course, this investigation begs to differ.
tying it back to where all this started: that room full of big pharma CEOs. it's not just Merck.
the ICJ notably said that Merck's conduct was typical of the pharmaceutical industry and the company was not an outlier in terms of its overall business practices.
but adding that the incredible growth and interest in Keytruda could be further pushing what's acceptable by industry standards. and so that is ultimately where we are right now.
and of course, I'd love to know your thoughts, opinions, and reactions. here's where I'll kind of end this.
I always feel like I need to preface when I'm critical of things or talking about society. I am in no way endorsing violence. period. full stop.
but it's also one of those situations where it ends up not being surprising that when Luigi Mangione allegedly shoots a healthcare executive in the back on a Manhattan sidewalk,
that there was an enormous number of Americans, including a lot of people who had never in any other context excuse the killing of a stranger, looking at that story and not feeling the way they normally would feel.
feeling less horror, and maybe something closer to recognition of just how broken shit is.
and whatever you personally feel about that, and to be absolutely clear, I think murdering people is wrong, full stop, reaction we saw out in the world to that itself is also data.
it is telling you something about where this country actually is right.
one of the problems is you have a system that people are living inside of that's produced so much grief, so much medical debt, so many phone calls to insurance companies where people weren't able to get the drugs they needed,
and the whole situation ended with someone they loved dying.
the political violence had started to read to them as something other than senseless. that's how much pain there is. that's how much greed appears to win the day.
and things do need to change through policy and regulation.
so that the social contract out there that says, you know, we're going to sort this out through votes and lawsuits and elections instead of through violence wins the day.
every day another American experiences some sort of horrible pain that could have been avoided.
or every year you have a Robert Davis type standing in the White House promising to lower prices, and then quietly raising them.
and every year that patents get extended and the lobbyists win, that belief erodes just a little bit more. that should scare everyone. it scares me.
but then my friends, you beautiful bastards, is the end of your Monday show. thank you for watching. I hope you're having a fantastic Memorial Day. or if you're watching the morning after, maybe.
I hope you had a fantastic Memorial Day. yeah. that's it. thank you for watching. thank you for hitting that like button. and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
