Axios analysis: Drugmakers getting richer

Between the lines: Nothing has fundamentally changed for drug companies even though the Trump administration is tinkering with ideas on how to lower what people pay for their prescriptions.

• Drug companies are charging more for their patent-protected medicines at prices that are well above what it costs to make them, and/or they are selling more of their drugs overall.
• The insulin made by Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, Merck's cancer drug Keytruda, and Pfizer's breast cancer pill Ibrance epitomize this growth of sales and prices.

By the numbers: Investors have soured a bit on health care, including pharma, but the numbers don't lie.

• 12 of the most profitable drug companies in Q1 collectively reported more than $29 billion in profits.
• A dozen companies had net profit margins above 30% in the first quarter, 9 of which were pharma firms. Alexion Pharmaceuticals' margin was 52%, one of the highest margins in the industry after accounting for odd, one-time items.

Yes, but: Our analysis does not include financial statements of not-for-profit hospitals, due to their protracted reporting patterns, and there are a lot more hospitals in the country than drug companies.

• Hospitals represent the largest share of health care spending, and an initial look at the not-for-profit systems' first-quarter reports shows net income has been increasing.
• Negotiating power over private health insurers has allowed the dominant hospital systems to maintain or grow their wealth.

• "After nearly a month of stonewalling, it appears clear that the President has chosen the path of defiance, obstruction, and cover-up," the letter reads.

The state of play: Several White House officials have told Axios' Alayna Treene that the administration has no plans of complying with the committees' demands for interviews or documents without a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry.

The big picture: The Trump administration's initial refusal to turn over the whistleblower complaint on the president's interactions with Ukraine is what led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to finally support a formal impeachment inquiry.

Go deeper: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

• Johnson asked the Justice Department earlier this week to look into links between Ukraine and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. His letter questioned the narrative that Biden's actions in Ukraine had nothing to do with his son's connection.
• However, it was also discovered that he signed onto a 2016 letter that mirrored Biden's work to reform Ukraine's prosecutor general and judiciary.
• There is no evidence that Biden's reform work in Ukraine was to protect his son's business dealings, as the president and some of his allies allege, or that he committed any form of corruption.

The state of play: Sondland, a Trump political appointee who donated $1 million to the president's inaugural committee, denied that there was a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and Ukraine's government in a series of text messages that former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker provided to a group of House committees investigating the Trump-Ukraine matter.

• "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, texted Sondland.
• Sondland texted back: "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump's intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind."
• The New York Times reported that Sondland's response came only after he spoke to the president.

Go deeper: House committees release texts from former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker