TV, Digital Ads, And Patient Lobbyists Call On Senators To Pass Bipartisan Legislation To Curb Big Pharma Abusive Monopolies And Boost Lower Cost Generic Competition
WASHINGTON, D.C — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now (P4ADNow) launched a six-figure ad campaign today as part of its “Push For Competition To Lower Drug Prices.” The campaign includes two video ads featuring patients who are forced to struggle with the high prices of their prescription drugs and urgently call on the Senate to pass a package of bipartisan bills that crack down on the drug industry’s anti-competitive practices and close regulatory loopholes to promote generic and biosimilar competition to lower drug prices for patients. Jacqueline Garibay is a college student who lives with ankylosing spondylitis, and Lisa McRipley lives with multiple sclerosis. The 30-second videos are running on digital and TV platforms in Washington, D.C. The campaign also includes digital static ads as well as grassroots advocacy across ten states, through which people will call and write their senators to demand the timely passage of the competition bill package.
“Now that the Senate is back from recess, there is a real opportunity to advance common sense solutions supported by both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate that will deliver relief to patients through lower drug prices,” 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. “It’s time to curb drug companies’ abuse – through anti-competitive practices that extend monopolies beyond the time intended under law – and allow our system to work, with timely generic and biosimilar competition in the marketplace to lower prices. We urge the Senate to act now.”
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. “While my classmates are thinking about their careers, their weddings, all I can think about is how I’m going to afford my medication.”
Watch Jacqueline’s ad here.
The second ad features Lisa McRipley, a Richmond, Texas patient who lives with multiple sclerosis. “The medication to treat my MS is nearly $7,500 a month. But without it, my disease will progress irreversibly – I could lose my independence solely because of outrageous drug prices,” Lisa, a medicare beneficiary, says in the ad. “Congress can fix this. We can’t afford to wait.”
Watch Lisa’s ad here.
P4ADNow’s campaign includes digital ads as well as grassroots advocacy in ten states, thanking the following senators for fighting to lower drug prices by ensuring competition: Lisa Murkowski (AK), Rick Scott (FL), Chuck Grassley (IA), Joni Ernst (IA), Mike Braun (IN), Bill Cassidy (LA), Susan Collins (ME), Josh Hawley (MO), Kevin Cramer (ND), John Cornyn (TX), Ted Cruz (TX), and Mike Lee (UT).
See example ads here:
Over the summer, 35 organizations representing patients, consumers, seniors, churches, students, unions and disease advocacy groups sent a letter to the Senate to pass bipartisan patent and regulatory reforms that curb abuses and allow greater competition to lower drug prices. This campaign builds on this momentum.
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Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is the only national patient advocacy organization that focuses exclusively on system-changing policies to lower drug prices. P4ADNow is independent, bipartisan and does not accept funding from any organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.