Page 8 March 16, 2017 EL SEGUNDO HERALD Police Briefs Police Reports Thursday, March 2 One male adult was arrested at 1009 from the 2100 block of East El Segundo Boulevard for two outstanding El Segundo PD misdemeanor warrants. A petty theft report was taken at 1432 hours from the 500 block of Sheldon Street. Unknown suspect(s) took $600 in U.S currency. An online identity theft report was taken at 1534 hours from the 200 block of East Maple Avenue. Unknown suspect(s) opened a Sprint account using the victim’s personal information. One female adult was arrested at 1923 hours from the 600 block of North Sepulveda Boulevard for false identification to a peace officer and public intoxication. Friday, March 3 A petty theft report was taken at 0717 hours from the 400 block of Virginia Street. Unknown suspect(s) took personal accessories from an unlocked vehicle. A burglary (residential) report was taken at 1007 hours from the 100 block of Concord Street. Unknown suspect(s) took a bicycle from a carport. A petty theft report was taken at 1555 hours from the 400 block of Indiana Street. Unknown suspect(s) took a wallet containing $600 in U.S. currency. One male adult was detained at 1806 hours from the 100 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard and transported to Harbor UCLA Medical Center for evaluation and treatment. A found property report was taken at 2131 hours from the 300 block of Main Street. A keyring with three keys was found. One male adult was arrested at 2212 hours from Hughes Way and Sepulveda Boulevard for obstructing a peace officer, driving without a required interlock ignition device, driving with a suspended license and one outstanding Palos Verdes Estates PD misdemeanor warrant. One male adult was arrested at 2356 hours from the 500 block of North Sepulveda Boulevard for felony vandalism, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and being under the influence of a controlled substance. Saturday, March 4 One male adult was arrested at 0111 hours from the 1400 block of East Imperial Avenue for possession of a belt buckle knife. One male adult was arrested at 0423 hours from Imperial Avenue and Main Street for misdemeanor DUI with a BAC of .08% or above. A traffic accident (without injuries) occurred at 0454 hours at El Segundo Boulevard and Main Street, vehicle versus a fire hydrant. A found property was taken at 1142 hours from the 100 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard. Eighty one dollars in U.S. currency was found on the floor of the location. A vandalism report was taken at 1410 hours form the 1200 block of East Maple Avenue. Unknown suspect(s) hit victim’s vehicle with a raw egg. One male adult was arrested at 2120 hours from the 200 block of North Douglas Street for public intoxication. Sunday, March 5 A grand theft (commercial) report was taken at 1258 hours from the 800 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard. Taken were unknown merchandises. One male adult was arrested at 1405 hours from the 600 block of Vista Del Mar for public intoxication. A traffic accident (with injuries) occurred at 2305 hours from the 100 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard, vehicle versus vehicle. One female adult was arrested at 2305 hours from the 100 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard for felony DUI and a BAC .08% or above causing bodily injuries. One male adult was arrested at 2311 from the 1000 block of West Imperial Avenue for domestic battery and inflicting corporal injury to a minor. Monday, March 6 A vandalism report was taken at 0716 hours from the 300 block of Center Street. Unknown suspect(s) broke light fixtures. A domestic violence and an assault with a deadly weapon report was taken at 0827 hours from the 1900 block of Hughes Way. A known suspect had a physical altercation with the victim. A missing person was located at 0909 hours in the 600 block of North Sepulveda Boulevard. Located was a female adult who was reported missing out of Los Angeles. A dead body report was taken at 0910 hours from the 500 block of East Grand Avenue. A male adult was found deceased at the location. An injury report was taken at 1211 hours from the 200 block of North Continental Boulevard. A male adult fell to the ground. A petty theft report was taken at 1447 hours from the 300 block of Sheldon Street. An unknown suspect attempted to take a bicycle helmet. A traffic accident report was taken at 1550 hours from the 600 block of North Sepulveda Boulevard. Vehicle versus vehicle. Tuesday, March 7 One female adult was arrested at 0234 hours from Main Street and Holly Avenue for possession of a controlled substance. One female adult was arrested at 1951 hours from the 1200 block of East Sycamore Avenue for driving under the influence with a BAC of .08% or above. Wednesday, March 8 A burglary (residential) report was taken at 1623 hours from the 600 block of Maryland Street. Unknown suspect(s) took miscellaneous personal items from the house. A found property report was taken at 1713 hours from the 700 block of West Pine Avenue. Found was a bicycle. One male adult was arrested at 2046 hours from the 1400 block of East Imperial Avenue for criminal threats, trespassing and one outstanding misdemeanor LAPD warrant. • Drug Maker Doesn’t Have to Explain Price Hikes to Shareholders By Rob McCarthy Call this a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. A federal government lawyer told one of the country’s largest pharmaceutical companies last month it can remain silent about why it raised prices on life-saving therapies. The irony here is that the people asking for that information are concerned shareholders of the biotech company Amgen whose CEO was called recently to the White House for a meeting with the President. Amgen is based in Thousand Oaks, yet it is a darling with fund managers and South Bay investors because of the company’s sustained growth and annual profits that will return $11 or $12 per share to investors this year. The company earned $6 billion in profit last year, and made $16.6 billion in sales on its 10 topselling therapies. A faith-based shareholder group that includes the Catholic healthcare system Dignity Health filed a proposal last fall asking Amgen’s management to explain to the stockholders why it raised prices on some drugs dating back to 2010. Specifically, the Mercy Investment Services group asked for details about the company’s rates of price increases and the reasoning behind them. The request included any assessment of risks to Amgen from price hikes on its 10 best-selling drugs. An attorney for the group argued to the SEC that the healthcare debate in Washington and public opinion over patient-drug costs put Amgen and its investors on shakier ground in 2017. Stockholders could be affected if the federal government caps reimbursement for prescription drugs covered through Medicare and Medicaid, attorney and former law school professor Paul Neuhauser wrote to the SEC in January. That letter was a follow-up to another one sent last fall to Amgen CEO Robert Bradway and his management team. The Mercy Investment members were worried about public outrage over pharmaceutical prices and by comments made by President Trump during his campaign. Trump said that drug makers were “getting away with murder” and vowed the federal government would negotiate lower prices on his watch. The group is largely comprised of religious groups, including the Dignity Health system that operates clinics in Inglewood and Torrance. Their attorney reminded the SEC staff that in the past they had sided with shareholders wanting drug makers to explain to them how prices were set on FDA-approved medicines. Amgen, in its own letter to the SEC, said that it already provides drug information on its website. However, the faith-based group says the drug maker is being secretive and that the information it wants is more detailed than what the company has divulged publicly. Drug pricing represents a moral issue for the religious community, Neuhauser said, noting that CEOs of major drug companies have appeared before Congress and been roundly criticized over increases to drug costs, including a 400 percent hike for EpiPen, used by children with severe food allergies. Turing Pharmaceuticals caught flak from Congress and the public after it hiked the price by 5,000 percent on an anti-parasite therapy called pyrimethamine. President Trump in January met at the White House with pharmaceutical executives, including Amgen CEO Robert Bradway. One topic of discussion reportedly was the need to make drugs cheaper for U.S. patients. The President promised U.S. corporate tax cuts from his administration and gave the CEOs a tour of the White House, but he didn’t ask for any specific commitments from the pharmaceutical executives on capping their pricing. The interfaith shareholder group is keenly aware that the President, Congress, insurers and patients are closely watching how Amgen and the industry, known as Big Pharma, respond to the palpable dissatisfaction with high drug costs. Amgen’s business plan “can be upset if there’s enough public pressure,” Neuhauser said. The company’s revenues grew by eight percent annually over a five-year period, according to Amgen figures. Amgen attorney Andrea Robinson successfully argued that drug pricing falls into ordinary business operations, which needn’t be discussed with shareholders under SEC rules. In a letter dated January 10 to the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, Robinson reminded the commission staff that the exemption exists so that stockholders of a publicly owned company don’t micromanage how it conducts business. That includes how it sets prices and prepares for any backlash, she wrote. “The supporting statement further requests that the Company provide ‘detailed justification for price increases.’ These mandates demonstrate that the Proposal is seeking to probe deeply into matters of a complex nature upon which stockholders, as a group, are not in a position to make an informed judgment,” Robinson wrote. SEC staff issued its legal opinion in the Amgen matter on February 10 in favor of the drug maker. Though the opinion is nonbinding, the Mercy Investments group will not pursue the issue with Amgen at this year’s shareholder meeting, the group’s attorney said. Identically worded proposals were submitted to at least eight U.S. drug makers, and SEC staff gave a thumbs down to each shareholder plan for more transparency about drug pricing. Mercy Investment members were involved in some, but not all, of the calls for more transparency from the pharmaceutical industry, Nehauser confirmed. It’s possible his client will pursue this issue next year with Amgen management, he said. Other drug makers being pushed by stockholders for more transparency about their pricing decisions include some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country. SEC staff in February blocked proposals filed with Biogen, Bristol-Myers, Eli Lilly, Gilead Sciences, Merck & Co., Pfizer and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, according to SEC records. The campaign by faith-based investors, many of them members of an interfaith push for corporate responsibility, doesn’t appear to be finished. The SEC staff’s decision not to recommend any enforcement action against drug makers for ignoring these shareholder requests only covers this year, so they could be back. “The first shareholder proposal on drug pricing that I’m aware of was successful in the 1990s,” Neuhauser said. “There have been successful ones since. I think the problem this year was more the way it worded than the basic notion.” Shareholders in three 2015 cases overcame a drug maker’s resistance to producing its pricing data, according to Neuhauser. In each case, the companies argued like Amgen that investors were trying to micromanage the business operations, yet SEC staff rejected the argument Neuhauser presented in January in writing. The former law school professor pointed to other SEC’s staff opinions regarding drug companies and price-setting. “This is not too intricate a matter for shareholders to understand. Note that it is the rate of increase that is being requested, not the actual prices charged. Indeed, the proposal ‘micromanages’ significantly less than the proposals that were deemed not to micromanage in Celgene Corp. (March 9, 2015), Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (February 25, 2015) and Gilead Sciences, Inc. (February 23, 2015),” he wrote. Calls to Amgen representatives for comment about the pricing of its leading drug therapies went unreturned as of late last week. The company’s website did not mention the SEC See Drug Maker, page 14 Commercial Burglars Arrested On March 13, El Segundo Police detectives served a search warrant in the 4000 block of W. 139th Street in the City of Hawthorne. The warrant was related to a theft that occurred on March 4 at the Athleta retail store in El Segundo, where the suspects stole over $10,000 in merchandise. The warrant led to the arrest of Riascos Reyes and Chavez, who are Colombian nationals tied to an elaborate theft ring responsible for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from American retail outlets. With the assistance of corporate security investigators from numerous clothing companies, El Segundo detectives recovered over $65,000 in stolen merchandise during a warrant service. If anyone has information, please contact Detective Chris Amorino at (310) 524- 2258 or camorino@elsegundo. org. DR#17-0688. • From all of us at Herald Publications
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