| Ad Responds To Reps. Peters, Rice, And Schrader And Senator Sinema’s Attempt To Gut Medicare Negotiation Legislation |
| WASHINGTON, D.C. — In response to recent attempts by a small group of Democrats to gut Medicare negotiation provisions in the Build Back Better reconciliation package, Patients For Affordable Drugs Now released a new ad today urging Democrats to keep their promise and pass real Medicare negotiation that will reduce prices on costly, monopoly brand-name drugs. The ad features Therese Ball, a registered nurse and multiple sclerosis patient, and will run on national networks and digital platforms, as well as in Southern California, New York, Oregon, and Arizona starting this week. “Instead of standing with their constituents and supporting legislation that would let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices, pharma henchmen Reps. Scott Peters, Kathleen Rice, and Kurt Schrader — aided and abetted by Senator Kyrsten Sinema — are serving their Big Pharma campaign contributors by pushing an alternate bill that would exempt the most expensive drugs from negotiation and leave drug companies with the power to continue dictating prices for brand-name drugs,” said David Mitchell, a patient with incurable blood cancer and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “Medicare negotiation is the most popular priority of the Build Back Better plan. Patients need relief now with real negotiation to lower the prices of brand-name drugs that are crushing us — not a bill that excludes those drugs and sells us out to Big Pharma.” Watch the ad here. Masquerading as Medicare negotiation, the alternate proposal that Reps. Peters, Rice, and Schrader and Senator Sinema are pushing would not allow for negotiation on the most costly drugs in both Parts B and D nor drugs still in their period of monopoly exclusivity. It would maintain the status quo, leaving drug corporations with the power to continue dictating prices of brand-name drugs and American patients paying four times what people in other nations pay for their prescription medicines. “The medications I need to live are priced at over $7,000 every month. I can’t afford these prices — I don’t know how anyone can,” multiple sclerosis patient Therese Ball of Ogden Dunes, Indiana, says in the ads. “It makes me so angry that members of Congress are choosing Big Pharma over patients — it’s unforgivable.” This new ad launches as President Biden has been pushing Democrats to settle outstanding issues in the Build Back Better reconciliation bill and pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan by the end of October. “Some in Congress are siding with Big Pharma to gut the plan to let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices,” the ad says while showing images of Rep. Peters, Senator Sinema, Rep. Schrader, and Rep. Rice. “Tell Democrats and President Biden to keep their promise. Don’t let Big Pharma dictate prices.” |
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