P4ADNow Continues Push For Lower Rx Prices With New Six-Figure Ad Campaign Demanding Congress Let Medicare Negotiate Lower Drug Prices

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now launched a six-figure ad campaign today as part of the “Push For Lower Rx Prices.” The two new video ads feature patients who have struggled with the high prices of their prescription drugs calling on Congress to pass comprehensive reforms, including Medicare negotiation. Jacqueline Garibay is a college student from Austin, Texas, and lives with ankylosing spondylitis, and Lisa McRipley of Detroit lives with multiple sclerosis. The 30-second videos are running on digital platforms in Washington, D.C., this month. Today’s announcement is part of a larger campaign launched by P4ADNow and more than 70 other organizations last week pressing the Senate to make meaningful progress on comprehensive drug pricing reforms, including Medicare negotiation, by Memorial Day. As a part of the campaign, P4ADNow is also driving grassroots advocacy in key states, where patients call and write their senators to ask for their support advancing the drug price provisions through reconciliation.

“Americans are demanding that Congress deliver on its promises to lower drug prices. Eighty-three percent of voters back Medicare negotiation and 77 percent are in favor of limiting annual drug price increases, including support from large majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents,” said David Mitchell, a patient with incurable blood cancer whose drugs carry a list price of more than $900,000 per year and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “The Senate has the power to deliver an unprecedented victory for Americans by passing comprehensive drug pricing reforms, including empowering Medicare to negotiate. It’s time to get it done.”

The first ad features Jacqueline Garibay, a college student and patient advocate who lives with ankylosing spondylitis, an autoimmune disorder that affects most of her major joints. “The last time we had to buy my medication, I decided to forgo it. We just couldn’t afford $6,000 a month,” Jacqueline of Austin, Texas, says in the ad. “If Congress doesn’t lower drug prices now, a whole ’nother generation of us will suffer.”

Watch Jacqueline’s ad here.

The second ad features Lisa McRipley, a patient advocate for P4ADNow and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society from Detroit. “The medication I need to treat my MS is nearly $7,500 a month. I’m on Medicare, and I still can’t afford that,” Lisa says in the ad, explaining that without her medication, her multiple sclerosis could progress irreversibly. “Congress can fix this. We can’t afford to wait. Please, Congress, let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices.”

Watch Lisa’s ad here.

“Lisa’s story is far too common among the nearly 1 million people living with MS in the United States. 40 percent of people with MS already don’t take their medications as prescribed due to cost,” said Bari Talente, executive vice president of advocacy and healthcare access at the National MS Society. “We call on Congress to pass comprehensive reforms to lower drug prices and increase access to medications as soon as possible. Lisa and many others can’t afford congressional inaction.”

The “Push For Lower Rx Prices” is supported by organizations representing patients, consumers, seniors, unions, small businesses, large employers, physicians, nurses, and disease advocacy groups.

The drug price provisions under consideration by the Senate will, for the first time, authorize Medicare to negotiate prices directly for some of the most expensive prescription medicines, including insulin; institute a hard cap on out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries and limit copays on insulin for millions of Americans to $35 each month; and limit annual price increases to stop price gouging by drug corporations.

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