“Paid for by PhRMA.” ?????????
Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. The Lies They Tell
- In an op-ed for Business Insider, P4ADNow founder David Mitchell sets the record straight point-by-point on the false claims perpetuated by the pharma lobby and its front groups in fear-mongering ads. “Big Pharma may not have found a cure for my cancer, but it has perfected the science of twisting facts that it doesn’t like to scare patients like me into believing that lowering drug prices will bring us great harm,” Mitchell writes. “If Big Pharma spent more time working on innovative new drugs and less time protecting its power to dictate high prices, we’d get more of what we seek: innovation we need at prices we can afford.” — (Business Insider)
2. Americans Choose Medicare Negotiation
- A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows that Americans don’t believe Big Pharma’s lies that Medicare negotiation will harm new drug development. In fact, an overwhelming majority support negotiation even after hearing Big Pharma’s fear-mongering arguments. Additional polls show that Americans believe Medicare negotiation is one of the top reasons to pass the Build Back Better plan, and in states like Arizona and New Jersey, 94 percent and 77 percent of voters, respectively, support the reform. We can save millions of lives now by passing legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. Congress, let’s get it done. — (Kaiser Health News, Axios)
3. Pharma Puts A Price On Our Lives
- P4ADNow patient advocate Hailey Adkisson, whose daughter was born with a rare form of childhood epilepsy and required a medication that cost $280,000 per course, spoke at an event with Senator Wyden last Friday about why Americans need Medicare negotiation now and the toll that high drug prices take on families. “Throughout this epilepsy journey, I have met many families who have had to make incredibly difficult decisions in order to avoid expensive medications,” Hailey said. “How do you say no to a potentially life-saving drug for your child?” — (The Portland Tribune)
4. A False Choice
- Medicare negotiation would allow for both robust drug innovation and more affordable drugs to improve patient access, writes oncologist and health policy expert Ezekiel Emanuel in Politico, adding that proposed legislation would still result in more than 95 percent of new drugs coming to market. “This hardly constitutes the ‘end of innovation’ that drug companies and others ominously warn is inevitable with any price regulation,” Emanuel writes. “What it does mean is that tens of millions of Americans … might finally be able to afford to take the medications that could save their lives.” — (Politico)
5. Our Voices United
- This week, AARP state directors from Wisconsin and West Virginia, a doctor from Pennsylvania, and patients and their families from Colorado, Nevada, Nebraska, and New Jersey all laid out the case for Congress to pass strong Medicare negotiation legislation and deliver relief to Americans struggling with sky high drug prices. — (Winona Daily News, Exponent Telegram, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Colorado Springs Gazette, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Lincoln Journal-Star, Star-Ledger)