Drugmakers need to learn empathy and not try to defend price hikes that make drugs inaccessible, Andrew Witty, departing CEO of Britain’s largest pharmaceutical producer GSK, told the business-focused television network CNBC. “In all circumstances,” Witty told the network on the sidelines of the Singapore Summit 2016, “we need to be realistic and empathetic; we need to demonstrate better that we understand people are concerned about pricing.”                                                                                   

Soaring drug prices have been in the news not least since Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, was criticized for raising the price of Daraprim, a treatment used in part by people with compromised immune systems, from $13.50 to $750 per pill overnight. Most recently, Mylan Pharmaceuticals has come under pressure for sharply increasing the price of the Epipen, an injection device to prevent fatal anaphylactic shock, from $100 in 2007 for a two-pack to nearly $600.

Exorbitant US drug prices have also been an issue in the ongoing US presidential campaign. "There is a real issue here on affordability,” Witty acknowledged, adding: “It almost doesn't matter whether or not you can defend the price because if people can't afford it, that's what we have to focus on. “Pricing always has to be taken in a very responsible mindset to get the balance right between access and reward for innovation," the Glaxo CEO said.