Last year, I lost a dear friend and research associate, Nicolas Freeman, who died because he was unable to pay the high cost of Sovaldi, the lifesaving drug for hepatitis C.

Nic’s son will testify Saturday, along with local health professionals, the AARP and fire and police representatives, at a public forum on drug prices sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, state Sen. Jose Menéndez and state Rep. Diego Bernal.

Near the time of Nic’s death, Doggett began forming a prescription drug pricing task force with a half-dozen of his Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives after seeing spikes in the prices of new drugs.