COLUMBUS — As rising drug prices continue to crush patients and the window for Congress to act closes, Patients For Affordable Drugs Now expanded its multi-million dollar campaign to Ohio to ask Sen. Rob Portman to call for a vote on a key bill in the Senate that would protect Americans from unjustified drug price hikes.

Watch the ad campaign video, “Ashley.”

Currently, the average American pays two to three times more for prescription drugs than citizens in other wealthy countries. The Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2019 would curtail runaway price hikes in America and cap out-of-pocket costs for patients on Medicare, who can face more than $15,000 a year in drug costs.

“President Trump supports the Senate bill, and now we’re asking Senator Portman to call for a vote on this important bipartisan legislation,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “Patients need the senator to stand up for them and lower drug prices now.”

These ads come on the heels of a campaign in August when Patients For Affordable Drugs Now thanked Sen. Portman for supporting the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act of 2019 in the Senate Finance committee.

Now, today’s ads — featuring patients speaking out in support of the Senate bill — encourage him to keep up the fight and call for a vote. In addition to paid media, the effort features visits from patients to Washington to share their stories in person and gives patients a suite of tools to contact their representatives in support of lowering drug prices.

Big Pharma is spending millions to distort, demonize, and relentlessly attack these proposals because the changes could actually break the rigged system that keeps their profits high and patients costs skyrocketing.

Americans overwhelmingly support action to lower drug prices. Eighty-six percent of Americans — majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — support allowing Medicare to negotiate. Nearly 1 in 3 adults report not taking their medicines as prescribed due to cost.

The mission of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is to educate the public and mobilize patients to advocate for policies to curb runaway drug prices in America. Touted by The Hill as “a leading drug pricing advocacy group,” Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is a bipartisan non-profit organization established under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Service code. As a 501(c)(4), P4ADNow engages in electoral activity and direct advocacy in support of legislation that would lower drug prices.

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