Over the last 12 months, our community of hundreds of thousands of patients and allies has taken action to protect the historic 2022 prescription drug law, debunk Big Pharma’s propaganda, and advocate for legislative solutions to curb patent abuses and increase lower-cost competition in the drug marketplace for everyone. Highlights from the year include:
Patient Advocates Celebrate Historic Drug Pricing Reforms
Throughout the year, the patient advocates at the heart of our work have been highlighting the savings brought by the drug price reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act:
- Judy Aiken introduced the President and Vice President at an event celebrating Medicare’s first ten lower negotiated prices – projected to save nearly nine million patients up to $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs. If these negotiated prices were in effect in 2023, they would have delivered taxpayers an estimated $6 billion in savings. Judy also testified before the Senate Finance Committee about the relief brought by the out-of-pocket cap and Medicare negotiation.
- Steven Hadfield and Bob Parant participated in a White House panel to discuss the $35 insulin copay cap. If the insulin copay cap had been in effect in 2020, 1.5 million patients would have saved an average of $500 a year on insulin.
- Rose Keller introduced President Biden at an event focused on lowering drug costs and highlighted how the drug price law offers hope to young patients like herself who face a lifetime of managing chronic conditions with costly medications.
- Patient testimonies from Bob Parant, Aly Elbaga, and Lynn Scarfuto helped shape our amicus briefs filed in support of the government’s opposition to pharmaceutical industry lawsuits to stop Medicare negotiation.
- As 2024 came to a close, patient advocates across the country, including Steven Hadfield (NC), Judy Aiken (ME), Lynn Scarfuto (NY), and Doug Lusty (UT), have celebrated the new $2,000 out-of-pocket cap by sharing their anticipated 2025 savings in letters-to-the-editor (LTEs) published by their local newspapers. Others like Jackie Trapp and Lisa McRipley expressed their excitement about the cap directly with President Biden himself.
Judy Aiken introduces President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at an event focused on lowering drug prices on August 16, 2024.
Continued Push For Competition
Since the launch of our “Push for Competition to Lower Drug Prices” in July 2023, advancing bills that increase competition in the drug marketplace has continued to be at the forefront of our work to lower drug prices. The campaign highlights several bipartisan legislative solutions to Big Pharma’s anti-competitive practices and has used digital ads, an online advocacy hub, videos, and letters to urge Congress to pass bills to promote generic and biosimilar competition. Since the campaign launch our community has:
- sent over 42,000 letters and made 31,000 calls to Congressional offices;
- nine patient advocates have flown to Washington D.C. to share their experience with high drug prices with lawmakers and urge them to pass these critical bills;
- many more have shared their stories through media interviews, press conferences, Hill panels, and op-eds.
Additionally, David Mitchell, P4ADNow’s President and Founder, voiced strong support for the package of bills during his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, urging them to rein in pharma’s patent abuses and allow for timely entry of lower-cost competition.
Disappointingly at the end of the year, despite strong bipartisan support and an opportunity to save taxpayers billions of dollars, critical measures that our community has been pushing for were eventually left out of the final version of the end-of-year spending bill, including S. 150, the Affordable Prescriptions For Patients Act of 2023 which passed the Senate unanimously in June, Q1/Q2, a provision from the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, and S. 2973, the Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability Act. While this decision angered Americans who struggle to afford their drugs, our community remains committed to mobilizing patients, holding lawmakers accountable, and fighting for system-changing reforms to lower drug prices in the next Congress.
P4ADNow patient advocates after sharing their personal stories with their legislators to urge them to pass the bipartisan package of competition bills (From Left: Jackie Trapp, Sue Lee, Karolina Chorvath, Gaile DeVore, and Janet Kerrigan)
Court Watch: US v. Pharma
In response to the pharmaceutical industry’s multi-million dollar campaign to block the Medicare Negotiation Program, P4AD has taken decisive action to defend this historic victory that patients fought hard to achieve. We mounted a powerful defense through the US vs. Pharma campaign leveraging the voices of patients who stand to benefit most from this reform. To date, we’ve filed two amicusbriefs highlighting the transformative benefits of the program, countering Big Pharma’s misinformation about access and innovation, and exposing the 20 years during which Big Pharma blocked Medicare’s ability to negotiate prices. As part of our campaign, we launched FightPharma.org and its Spanish language counterpart, Luchacontrapharma.org, to galvanize public pressure and mobilize patients across the country. Alongside our partners, Public Citizen, Social Security Works, and Health Care Voices, we continued to increase support for a petition to pressure pharma CEOs to withdraw their lawsuits to stop the program – which to date has been signed by over 200,000 people. Our micro-influencer campaign, targeted toward a younger audience, has gained significant traction on social media with 41 posts (in English and Spanish) generating over 904,000 views. Several posts were picked up and shared by the social impact company NowThis. While eight out of nine lawsuits were ruled in favor of patients, the fight is far from over as drug companies continue to appeal these rulings and aim to escalate these cases to the Supreme Court. P4AD remains committed to defending the integrity of the Medicare Negotiation Program, and ensuring that patients continue to be at the heart of this critical reform.
P4AD’s campaign microsite for US v. Pharma: Fighting To Protect Medicare Negotiation launched on April 5, 2024.
Expanding Our Spanish Language Program and Price Hike Report
In 2024, P4AD significantly expanded outreach within Latino and Black patient communities across the country. In the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia area, we launched a series of bike share ads in Spanish to encourage Spanish speakers to share their experiences with high drug prices. Through a strategic partnership with El Tiempo Latino, we developed the “Medicinas Vitales, No Lujos” public education campaign to increase awareness of this issue, which disproportionately harms Latinos, as well as draw attention to the lawsuits against Medicare negotiation. In collaboration with Telemundo 62, we created the “Tu Voz Cuenta” campaign to inspire Latinos to share their stories and advocate for further action. Additionally, we expanded our existing campaigns – Push for Competition to Lower Drug Prices and US v. Pharma – into Spanish to broaden their impact. We also released a report, covered by NBC, exposing Big Pharma’s price hikes in 2024 and their disproportionate harm to Black and Latino patients. The analysis focused on price increases of five cancer medications, such as those used to treat multiple myeloma, breast cancer, and prostate cancer, diseases that are disproportionately diagnosed among these communities. We will continue to work to elevate stories of patients from Black and Latino and push for reforms that improve both the financial and health outcomes of those most harmed by Big Pharma’s greed.
P4AD’s Mini-Report on drug price hikes and its impact on Black And Latino communities released on September 24, 2024.
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