WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, we honor the life, legacy, and friendship of David Mitchell – a tireless public health leader and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs – who died on Friday, January 2, 2026. Below is a statement from Chuck Hurley, David’s great friend and Board Chair of Patients For Affordable Drugs, reflecting on David’s extraordinary impact and the values that guided his life’s work.

“I was privileged to call David Mitchell a close friend for more than forty years, and to work alongside him on a number of his extraordinary public health initiatives. Throughout his life, David was guided by two great loves: his family – first and always – and public health.

Much of David’s work happened outside the spotlight, but its impact was profound. Time and again, he took on problems that had defied solutions and helped save lives most people will never know he touched. Because of his work, hundreds of thousands of American families are not missing a loved one at their table today.

Over the course of his career, David helped shape some of the most effective public health campaigns of our time, from the National Safe Kids Campaign to Click It or Ticket and the National Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign, to DaimlerChrysler’s Fit for a Kid initiative, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving. No matter the issue, David brought the same approach: rigorous analysis and data, proven solutions, broad coalitions, and communications strong enough to turn public support into lasting change. I will deeply miss the lively conversations we shared on important issues and the wisdom and commitment he brought to the work.

In 2016, David launched what he regarded as the crown jewel of his public health work: Patients For Affordable Drugs. Confronted personally with an unjust drug pricing system that put lifesaving medicines out of reach for millions, David once again took on a powerful and entrenched industry. His goal was simple and audacious – to hold drug companies accountable for extreme, nonnegotiable prices that ignored patients’ ability to pay.

It was through Patients For Affordable Drugs that David stepped into the public eye, not because he sought attention, but because he felt a responsibility to speak up. He knew his personal story, combined with a lifetime of public health and communications experience, gave him a platform to challenge a system that had gone unchallenged for far too long. Under his leadership, P4AD became a trusted, bipartisan force for reform, centering patient voices in a debate long dominated by corporate interests and helping change the trajectory of drug pricing in this country.

David’s genius was not just in identifying public health problems, but in knowing how to solve them – and how to build the momentum needed to drive real solutions. Those of us who knew him and worked with him stand in awe of what he accomplished. David Mitchell lived a distinguished life in service to others, and the world is safer, fairer, and more humane because he was in it. 

I look forward to continuing this work alongside Merith Basey as we carry forward David’s vision and honor his legacy through action.”

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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