P4ADNow Launches Push Including Ads In Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming, and Florida Calling Out Senators Lankford, Lee, Lummis, and Rubio For Standing With Big Pharma To Actually Raise Drug Prices
“I’m Furious That Senator Lee Spews Big Pharma Lies While He Tries To Make Sure Drug Companies Can Continue To Price Gouge Me For My Prescriptions.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients are pushing back hard on Republican Senators Lankford (OK), Lee (UT), Lummis (WY), and Rubio (FL)’s recent effort to force them to pay more for their prescriptions. Senator Lee introduced, and Senators Lankford, Lummis, and Rubio cosponsored, 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, Utah, Wyoming, and Florida to send a clear message to these senators: Don’t raise our drug prices.
“Senators Lankford, Lee, Lummis, and Rubio are putting Big Pharma ahead of patients, seeking to reverse provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act that 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 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’m furious that Senator Lee spews Big Pharma lies while he tries to make sure drug companies can continue to price gouge me for my prescriptions,” said Meg Jackson-Drage, from Magna, Utah who lives with fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain, both of which require costly medication. “I don’t understand how he can put drug company profits ahead of the needs of his constituents by pushing for the repeal of reforms that lower drug prices.”
“Florida seniors like me need Senator Rubio to stop standing in the way of lowering drug prices!” said Sheldon Armus of Boynton Beach, Florida, who lives with several cardiac conditions. “Finally, Congress passed a law to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and Senator Rubio wants to reverse it?! Makes no sense.”
“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, Oklahoma 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 ads in the four states as well as grassroots advocacy, where patients tell their senators to stand with patients, not Big Pharma.
See ad examples below:
###
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.