WASHINGTON, D.C. — The drug corporations that fueled America’s opioid epidemic are trying to get a $4 billion bailout in the fast-moving opioid legislation. According to multiple news reports, Big Pharma is close to inserting language into the opioid package that would roll back drug companies’ share of costs in the Medicare donut hole from 70 percent to 63 percent. This would mean a massive bailout for Big Pharma and higher costs for patients.
Read all about it below:
POLITICO: “A last-minute effort by the drug industry to tuck favorable policy changes into legislation responding to the opioid crisis is meeting health industry resistance…”
AXIOS: “‘Sounds like the size of the fix for pharma could be maybe 2-3x bigger than the opioids funding,’ a House Democratic aide said.”
THE HILL: “Lawmakers are considering adding a provision easing costs on drug companies to an opioid package currently being negotiated. The powerful pharmaceutical industry has been pushing for months…”
STAT NEWS: “Republicans on Capitol Hill are attempting to use a bill to address the opioid crisis to deliver a major victory for the pharmaceutical industry.”
WASHINGTON EXAMINER: “The pharmaceutical lobby is mounting a last-ditch effort to add a measure to an opioid abuse bill that would block an increase to the portion of a drug’s cost the industry must cover under Medicare.”
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Big Pharma is cutting a backroom deal to make seniors pay more for their prescriptions so drug corporations can keep reaping record profits and buying back stock. Today, Patients For Affordable Drugs Now activated its community in an effort to stop this $4 billion windfall that would hurt seniors and help Big Pharma. Watch the kickoff ad here.
In February, Congress agreed to close the prescription drug “donut hole” a year early for Medicare beneficiaries. This is a good deal for seniors and a rare win for patients, consumers, and taxpayers over drug companies. But today, drug corporations are swarming Congress with lobbyists and astroturf groups trying to undo the deal and force Medicare beneficiaries to pay more.
“Big Pharma is up to its usual dirty tricks,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient, Medicare beneficiary, and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “This go-round, the drug corporations are pushing for a rollback of good policy in order to pad their profit margins and make the rest of us foot the $4 billion bill. Both Congress and the public need to know and put a stop to it. The drug industry wants to pay less and make us pay more.”
Under a bipartisan agreement signed by President Trump earlier this year, drug corporations are responsible for giving a 70 percent discount on drugs in the donut hole starting next year. That’s up from a 50 percent discount this year.
Big Pharma is lobbying to only pay 64 percent of costs in the Part D donut hole instead of the 70 percent that was passed by Congress. This would result in a $4 billion windfall for the drug industry at the expense of patients.
Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is standing shoulder-to-shoulder with AARP and other consumer advocacy groups to stop this giveaway to Big Pharma.
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A greedy drug company CEO incites a mass cringe. States keep pushing for change. And a Big Pharma CEO’s political ads play fast and loose with the facts.
Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing!
1. We guess ‘morality’ means different things to different people
A CEO expresses his belief that it is a “moral requirement” to charge patients high prices for a drug from the 1950s. I’m sorry, what? — (CNN)
2. No one believes in the system
Alex Azar isn’t counting on pharma to rein in drug costs. He’s taking action. Same here.— (Business Insider)
3. Anybody out there remember submitting a 340B comment?
Some patients who sent comments opposing 340B don’t remember sending the comments at all. Half of the thousands of comments were sent anonymously. Hmm… — (Kaiser Health News)
4. Big Pharma: kicking and screaming to keep prices high
States like Maryland, Nevada, and California have been trying to pass laws that will challenge high drug prices, as they have become a huge financial strain on state budgets. — (Fierce Healthcare)
5. Fact Check!
As the New Jersey senate race between Bob Hugin and Bob Menendez heats up, a reporter puts ad claims under the microscope. — (STAT)
Crazy rich drug companies. DIY hospital drugs. A California Congresswoman in Big Pharma’s pocket.
Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing.
1. Crazy Rich Drug Companies
These families banded together to raise money for research into a new medication for cystinosis. But then they were priced out of the resulting drug. — (The Daily Beast)
2. August brought hot temps and high drug prices…
A new analysis by Wells Fargo showed drug corporations raised prices on 60 drugs in August. The median hike? 9.9 percent. Seven drugs saw a 100 percent gouge. #becausetheycan — (Axios)
3. We oppose the re-election of California Congresswoman Anna Eshoo
In California, a mom with multiple sclerosis can’t afford her medications. When a congresswoman does the industry’s bidding, Californians and Americans are harmed. — (P4AD Now)
4. Hospital drugs DIY
Fed up with shortages and rising costs, a not-for-profit organization is working to produce 14 generic drugs in hopes that the hospitals will pass on that savings to patients. — (Forbes)
5. Presidential tweets will not lower drug prices
While some manufacturers said that they are not planning on raising the prices of their drugs, others are unphased by the president’s tweets. Idea: Let Medicare negotiate. — (Forbes)
It’s Labor Day weekend, so you’re probably grilling and thinking about how Delaware outlawed gag clauses. Also, the Midterms are quickly becoming a referendum on drug prices.
1. Hattie’s Story
Hattie Saltzman, who lives with type 1 diabetes, grew tired of having to skip doses of insulin and splitting prescriptions with her dad for her life-sustaining medications. So she took a stand on national TV. — (TODAY)
2. Prices to be included on drug ads — but which prices?
It’s a little confusing. — (Forbes)
3. Gagged no more
Delaware is the latest state to make sure pharmacists can tell patients when it’s cheaper to pay cash to buy prescriptions than use insurance. A new law eliminates so-called “gag clauses,” the shady provisions written into pharmacy contracts by PBMs that forbid pharmacists from sharing this info. — (Delaware State News)
4. What’s the deal with rebates?
Patients For Affordable Drugs shared drug pricing principles on a proposed end to rebates in Medicare Part D in a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar. — (P4AD)
5. Midterms: a referendum on drug prices for seniors
Seniors and all Americans hurt and angered by rising prescription drug prices are primed to vote on the issue in the Midterms. Here are four questions they should be asking candidates. — (AARP)
BONUS shot — a PhRMA setback:
Political influence-peddler PhRMA is trying to knock down a monumental drug pricing transparency law in California, but a federal judge has tossed it out on procedural grounds — for now. Multiple sclerosis patient Victoria Stuessel played a role in the passage of the measure. — (NYT)
A dying patient records a message to a drug company CEO. Pharma middlemen royally rip us off. States revolt over drug costs.
Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing!
1. “I’m dying and you could save me right now.”
Cystic fibrosis patient Lora Moser faced $15,000 co-pays for a drug she fundraised to create. So she sent a YouTube message to the CEO of drugmaker Vertex from her hospital bed. — (KXAN)
2. A patient with Parkinson’s gets real about drug costs
Stahis Panagides, who lives with Parkinson’s, sat down with AARP to discuss difficulties affording 23 different medications every day. His family’s medical costs, including prescription drugs, add up to $23,000 a year. — (AARP)
3. Ripped off
Here’s why a patient who needed a stroke medication paid a $285 copay for a $40 drug. — (PBS)
4. Show us the receipts!
The Trump administration says its drug blueprint has already lowered prices, but we aren’t seeing it yet. Here’s why: — (The Washington Examiner)
5. Moving on up
Twenty-four states have passed 37 bills to help lower the cost of painfully high drug prices. As states rush to rein in prescription costs, Big Pharma keeps fighting to maintain the status quo. — (NYT)
A young man with diabetes loses his life to pharmaceutical greed. The EpiPen gets a generic in the midst of a frightening shortage. And a little boy begs Vertex Pharmaceuticals for his life.
Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing.
1. Insulin prices killed him
We need lower prices now or the body count will continue to rise. —(NBC)
2. Ohio to drug industry middlemen: You’re fired
Ohio Department of Medicaid is firing pharmacy benefit managers, citing millions of dollars in taxpayer waste. Will other states follow suit? — (The Columbus Dispatch)
3. Governors have ideas
The National Governors Association has released a report on how states should lower drug prices. States have been much more active in passing drug pricing reform than federal lawmakers. — (STAT)
4. The FDA does its job
We’re happy about the approval of a generic EpiPen. Let’s hope it’s affordable. — (NYT)
5. A little boy begs Vertex Pharmaceuticals for his life
Luis, 8, wants the Boston-based drugmaker Vertex Pharmaceuticals to lower the price of his cystic fibrosis medicine, so he can stay out of the hospital. But the drug corporation is playing hardball in the U.K. — (STAT)
Patients are speaking up about how Bob Hugin’s decision to double the price of a lifesaving cancer drug resulted in debt, bankruptcy, and financial pain for middle class families. Patients from New Jersey and across America are warning Garden State voters that Big Pharma CEO Bob Hugin made more than $100 million by raising drug prices so high that cancer patients were forced into debt just to stay alive. Patients For Affordable Drugs NOW is publishing the stories as part of an effort to lift up the patient voice ahead of New Jersey’s U.S. Senate race and shine a light on Bob Hugin’s unscrupulous record.
“Bob Hugin’s unethical behavior to block less expensive generics and double the price of cancer medications patients need to stay alive has real-world consequences best expressed by those who have been hurt,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient who took Hugin’s drug and president of Patients For Affordable Drugs NOW. “While he walked away with $140 million, people like Gulay Turan had to sell her furniture to afford the drug she needed to extend her mother’s life. Hugin cannot be a U.S. Senator.”
Read what patients have to say about their struggles to afford the prescription drugs Hugin price gouged.
For interviews with patients featured on the blog, contact Communications Director Juliana Keeping.
By Gulay Turan
East Rutherford, NJ
Gulay Turan maxed out credit cards and sold her furniture in order to afford her 66-year-old mother’s blood cancer medication, Revlimid. “I learned he increased the cost of my mother’s medicine by 100 percent in a decade, and I want him to know this action has consequences. The consequence is my mother is getting sicker, faster…If I could speak to the man responsible for the cost of my mother’s cancer medication, I would tell him about the heartbreak and crushing stress I feel.”
By Nancy Cartwright
Las Vegas, NV
To pay for the cancer drugs that kept her husband alive, Nancy Cartwright emptied her 401k, burned through her family’s savings account, and sold her family home. It wasn’t enough. Nancy and her husband eventually filed for bankruptcy. One of the drugs that forced the Cartwrights into financial ruin was the Celgene drug Thalomid.
“Besides bearing witness to my husband’s physical pain, I also witnessed the immense mental toll the cost of his medication took on him. It’s so hard to watch someone suffer and not be able to do anything to help. My hair even began to thin from stressing over his medication costs,” Cartwright said.
“I am facing as much as $19,167 a year just to stay alive”
By Jackie Trapp
Muskego, WI
Jackie Trapp, 53, who has multiple myeloma, must pay for Revlimid or a similar drug for the rest of her life. She worries she will bankrupt her husband of 30 years due to her medication costs. “With my current insurance, I am facing as much as $19,167 per year just to stay alive,” she said, adding “There is no justification for Celgene’s price hikes under Bob Hugin and no justification for lack of transparency into his former corporation’s price hikes. Bob Hugin is a dangerous choice for senator.
Paid for by Patients For Affordable Drugs NOW, www.fightpharma.org. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
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