Special Edition! The Inflation Reduction Act turns 1! 🎂🎈
Welcome to the Week in Review.
This week marked the one year anniversary of the passage of the historic Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration and members of Congress eagerly spreadthe word about how the widely supported drug price law is providing relief to patientsin their states and the soon-to-be implemented provisions will continue to lower costs.
ICYMI, here’s a quick roundup of how we at P4AD celebrated and defended the drug price provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act on it’s one year anniversary:
1. Launch Of P4AD’s Bilingual Advocacy Hub
- P4AD celebrated the new law’s anniversary by launching our advocacy hub in Spanish. The hub, all about the Inflation Reduction Act, breaks down the drug price reforms in the new law and provides tools for advocates to share their stories about high drug prices. P4AD’s Merith Basey remarked: “Latinos, many of whom are Spanish speakers, are disproportionately impacted by high drug prices and as part of our commitment to lowering drug prices we want to ensure more patients across the country are not only made aware of these new provisions, but understand how they will be able to benefit from them now and in the future.” Patient advocate Maria Sanchez is already feeling the impact of the $35 insulin copay cap: “This copay cap for insulin has saved me money that I can use to buy healthier food for my family, visit my grandchildren more often, or no longer skip out on my test strips,” she said upon the launch of the advocacy hub. We are excited for patients to continue to share their stories about how the new law is lowering drug prices and bringing medicines more within reach.
2. Amicus Brief, Rally, And Petition To Stop Medicare Negotiation Lawsuits
- In response to drug companies’ recent ridiculous lawsuits to block Medicare negotiation, P4AD joined Public Citizen and three other health care advocacy groups in filing an amicus brief in support of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)’s fight to reject the Chamber of Commerce’s suit to pause the Medicare negotiation program. Additionally, over 150,000 people signed a petition demanding Big Pharma drop the “unconscionable” lawsuits to halt the historic negotiation of drugs for people on Medicare. Advocates rallied and held a press conference outside of the Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday to deliver the letter and petition. Patient advocate Jacqueline Garibay, a 22-year-old student from Austin, Texas, who lives with ankylosing spondylitis, spoke at the press conference about the impact of negotiated drug prices on patients: “The new drug price reforms are projected to save patients like me tens of billions of dollars.” P4AD is proud to stand with these organizations and advocates to defend Medicare negotiation, an historic step in the fight to rein in high drug prices and end Big Pharma’s unfettered pricing power.
3. New Op-Ed Defending Medicare Negotiation
- This week, P4AD’s David Mitchell penned an opinion piece in The Hill setting the record straight about how Big Pharma’s lawsuits to stop Medicare negotiation would hurt patients. David lives with an incurable cancer and his prescription drugs carry a list price of almost $1,000,000 per year. “Eliquis, a blood thinner I must take that is likely to be one of the first drugs negotiated, has a list price of $6,825 per year in the U.S. because its maker, Bristol-Myers Squibb, has blocked competition,” David writes. “In Canada, where there is a generic, the price is $1,680.” The op-ed outlines how passage of the Inflation Reduction Act a year ago ended a nearly 20 year history during which Big Pharma reaped great profit from a prohibition on Medicare negotiating drug prices. He debunks drug companies’ claim that the new law will reduce drug innovation and explains that “drug companies will get higher prices for high-quality, innovative drugs.” Drug corporations’ “priorities are power and profit. Always,” David asserted. “We will support the legal fight against the pharmaceutical industry, and do all we can to make sure the courts understand how patients will be harmed if the law is delayed or overturned.” Read the full piece here.
Have a great weekend!