P4ADNow Launches Push In Oklahoma, Calling Out Senator Lankford For Standing With Big Pharma To Actually Raise Drug Prices
“Our Senators Should Be Working To Expand These Reforms To All Americans, Not Reverse Them. This Legislation Is Unforgivable.”
OKLAHOMA — Patients are pushing back hard on Senator James Lankford’s recent effort to force them to pay more for their prescriptions. Senator Lankford is cosponsoring the so-called Protect Drug Innovation Act, which aims to reverse the life-changing drug price reforms recently passed into law in the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill would repeal reforms patients fought for years to achieve. It would block Medicare from negotiating lower prices, remove caps on annual price increases which are now limited to the rate of inflation, and raise out-of-pocket costs for millions of Medicare beneficiaries. In response, Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is mobilizing patients and launching digital ads in Oklahoma to send a clear message to Senator Lankford: Don’t raise our drug prices.
“Senator Lankford is putting Big Pharma ahead of patients, seeking to reverse provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that will lower costs for tens of thousands of Oklahomans and which are supported by almost 80 percent of Americans, including seven out of 10 Republicans,” said David Mitchell, cancer patient and founder and president of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “Patients worked too hard to pass these reforms to lower drug prices; we will not stand still while pro-pharma senators like James Lankford try to undo it – we will fight back.”
The senators gave the bill the intentionally misleading name of the “Protect Drug Innovation Act,” falling back on Big Pharma’s discredited chestnut that anything to lower prices will stymie innovation. In the wake of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, investment in biotech stocks rose and a major drug company CEO said his company will do fine under its provisions.
“I wish I were surprised by Senator Lankford’s attempt to reverse the recent drug price reforms – but this is just another example of politicians standing with Big Pharma instead of with patients,” added Clayton McCook, from Edmond whose daughter, Lily, lives with type 1 diabetes. “The Inflation Reduction Act is a huge step in the right direction to lower drug prices. Our senators should be working to expand these reforms to all Americans, not reverse them. This legislation is unforgivable.”
P4ADNow’s campaign includes digital static ads as well as grassroots advocacy, where patients tell Senator Lankford to stand with patients, not Big Pharma.
See ad examples below:
In addition to Oklahoma, P4ADNow will also be running ads in Utah, Wyoming, and Florida where Senators Lee, Lummis, and Rubio also sponsored the bill.
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Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is an independent, bipartisan patient organization focused on policies to lower drug prices. P4ADNow does not accept funding from any organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.