WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Senate passed a reconciliation bill that includes a nearly $5 billion giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry: the ORPHAN Cures Act. This bill ignores the will of patients and undermines the historic and wildly popular Medicare negotiation program, ensuring patients will continue to pay high prices on drugs that should be negotiated. P4ADNow is now calling on the House to stand up for patients, protect the program that would lower costs for patients and taxpayers, and remove the ORPHAN Cures Act from the final package. 

“The ORPHAN Cures Act is a betrayal of millions of patients on Medicare, and a completely unnecessary $5 billion giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry,” said Merith Basey, Executive Director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “While nine in ten Americans are demanding Congress go further to lower drug prices, this decision moves us in the wrong direction, undermining hard-fought progress to lower drug prices. Pharma lobbyists will stop at nothing to maintain industry profits, and when a majority of the Senate caves to their interests, it’s a reminder to Americans why they’re paying the highest drug prices in the world. Simply put: it’s because Congress allows it. Once again, we call on the House to stand with patients against industry interest and remove ORPHAN Cures and its unnecessary pharma handouts immediately.” 

The ORPHAN Cures Act would create a new loophole allowing some of the most profitable drugs with multiple orphan indications to avoid price negotiation under Medicare, even as they generate massive sales. The CBO estimates this carveout would cost taxpayers nearly $5 billion over the next decade while diminishing the popular and effective Medicare negotiation program that is poised to deliver savings to millions of seniors starting next year.

P4ADNow patient advocates have sent 17,215 letters to Congress, met with legislative offices, spoken out publicly, and talked to the media demanding lawmakers reject the ORPHAN Cures Act. 

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Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, is the only national, patient advocacy organization focused exclusively on policies to lower drug prices. We empower and mobilize patients and allies, hold accountable those in power, and fight to shape and achieve system-changing policies that make prescription drugs affordable for all people in the United States. P4ADNow is bipartisan and does not accept funding from organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs. To learn more visit; PatientsForAffordableDrugsNOW.org.