P4AD Advocates Emma, Randall, Savanna, and Emily were proud to support Sen. John Cornyn’s bipartisan bill — the Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act — in Fort Worth, Texas this week. Let’s keep the momentum going! — (Twitter)
2. ISO Insulin
Patients are turning to the black market to afford insulin, a drug as vital to millions of Americans with diabetes as water. — (Reuters)
3. How PhRMA Lost its Mojo
Pressure from patients to lower prescription drug prices has loosened the drug industry’s death grip on DC. Bipartisan proposals hold promise for meaningful reform in 2020 in this new era of drug pricing reform. — (The Wall Street Journal)
4. Time to Crack Down
Seventy-eight percent of drugs associated with new patents are NOT NEW DRUGS. The poster child for patent abuse, AbbVie’s Humira, shows how far a drug maker will go to abuse the system at patient expense. Reform. Needed. Yesterday. — (The National Law Review)
5. The Harder They Fall
A federal probe into price fixing in the generics industry has ensnared a senior executive at Novartis’ generics unit. — (FiercePharma)
FORT WORTH, TX — Texas patients will join Senator John Cornyn at his roundtable today to share their stories about the high cost of their prescription drugs and to support the Senator in continuing to push for passage of his bipartisan Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act. The legislation was introduced by Senator Cornyn and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and aims to curb tactics drug companies use to game the patent system and block generic competition.
Below view the event details, hear from patients who will attend, and read more about the bill.
DETAILS
When: 1:20 PM, Tuesday, February 18, 2020 Where: Northside Community Health Center, Second Floor 2332 Beverly Hills Drive Fort Worth, TX 76114
PATIENT PERSPECTIVE
Emily Grant, Dallas, cystic fibrosis: “I once had to pay $1,000 up front for a necessary inhaled antibiotic, Colistin. $1,000 is an outrageous cost, and I know that if something happens to my coverage, I could suddenly be faced with this cost again.”
Savanna Braun, The Woodlands, asthma, psoriatic arthritis, and other chronic conditions: “I will have to make major life decisions because of the cost of my drugs. These decisions range from which jobs I seek to whether or not I can afford certain medications or new therapies.”
Randall and Emma Barker, Wichita Falls, father and daughter with type 1 diabetes: “Both my daughter, Emma, and I live with type 1 diabetes. We have had to make real sacrifices to be able to afford the insulin we need to live.”
Allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to bring lawsuits against companies that engage in patent abuses.
Permit the FTC to investigate whether patent thickets on drugs were created with the intent of delaying generic competition.
Create an easier and more efficient court-case process for generic drugs seeking to enter the market.
TYPES OF PATENT ABUSE:
Product hopping is when a brand drug company makes minor changes to its drug to earn a new patent and gain a new period of exclusivity. Product hops are most common when a brand drug is about to face competition from a generic competitor. The brand company will often transfer patients onto the new version of the drug for which they can charge unchallenged prices.
Brand drug companies also take advantage of the patent system by adding many trivial patents to their drugs, creating a “patent thicket” and allowing it to maintain longer periods of exclusivity and monopoly power.
Brand companies also force generic drug companies into a “patent dance” in which the brand company claims a generic company has infringed on its patents — which can add up to over 100 in some cases — forcing lengthy litigation periods that keep generic competition from coming to market.
PATIENT IMPACT:
One of the drugs Savanna Braun takes, Eliquis, has had generic competition blocked for 34 years.
Between 2005 and 2015, more than 75% of drugs to receive new patents were existing drugs already on the market. Of the roughly 100 best-selling drugs, nearly 80% of drugmakers obtained an additional patent to extend products’ monopoly periods, meaning patients are facing crushing drug prices, longer.
Humira is the world’s top-selling drug; its drug maker, AbbVie, has blocked generic competition for 39 years while increasing the blockbuster’s price by 144% between 2012 and 2018. Patients who need the anti-inflammatory drug can no longer afford it and their chronic conditions go untreated or worsen.
###
WASHINGTON, DC — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now launched a new advertising campaign today thanking Senator Martha McSally for supporting the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act, a bill that would stop drug company price gouging and lower costs for seniors. Drug pricing is top-of-mind for 2020 voters — nearly nine in 10 want Congress to prioritize lowering the prices of medications, polling shows.
Today’s campaign encourages Arizona patients to reach out to McSally’s office directly and thank her for standing with constituents — not Big Pharma.
“Senator McSally listened to her constituents who are calling out for relief from Big Pharma’s unrestrained price hikes,” said Ben Wakana, Executive Director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “We want her to know how much patients appreciate her support and work to advance bipartisan reform that would help fix our broken system.”
Relief from high drug prices can’t arrive soon enough for patients like Luz Lopez who travelled from Arizona to Washington, DC to share her story with Senator McSally and advocate for reforms that would lower drug prices.
“I don’t know from one year to the next if I’ll be able to afford the prescriptions I need to treat multiple chronic conditions, including depression and anxiety,” Lopez said. “It is so meaningful to me that Senator McSally listened and stood up for me. I hope more members of Congress follow her lead.”
The bill would penalize drug companies for price hikes above inflation and cap out-of-pocket costs for seniors on Medicare at $3,100 per year.
With her endorsement, McSally joined President Trump and bipartisan lawmakers in supporting the bill, which passed the Senate Finance Committee in July.
The bill currently awaits a vote from the full Senate.
###
What will come first? Clarity on the Iowa caucus results or lower drug prices?
1. Let’s Go
This week’s State of the Union address gave a hat tip to the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act, which could penalize price hikes and help seniors afford prescription drugs. Let’s get drug pricing reform over the finish line in 2020. — (USA Today)
2. A Scam Cloaked in Benevolence
Week in Review scribe Juliana Keeping testified before the House Way and Means Health Subcommittee this week on the impact of high drug costs for patients — including her 7-year-old, who has cystic fibrosis. — (News 9)
3. NEGOTIATE
If taxpayers negotiated for prescription drugs in Medicare like the VA already does, on insulin alone, we’d all save $4.4 billion in a year, a new analysis finds. — (STAT)
4. Smacked
Activists and the U.S. government are smacking Big Pharma’s Gilead around in court. Taxpayer investment spurred HIV-preventive drugs, and patients are loosening Gilead’s decade-long grip on the drugs’ monopoly. — (VICE)
5. Top Issue
Drug pricing is top-of-mind for 2020 voters. Hear from Clayton McCook, an Oklahoma dad whose daughter lives with Type 1 diabetes. The price of the insulin his 11-year-old needs to live has doubled since her diagnosis at age 3. — (Tradeoffs)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Juliana Keeping, a patient advocate and communications director for Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, will testify before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health today at the hearing, “More Cures for More Patients: Overcoming Pharmaceutical Barriers.”
Juliana is the mom to 7-year-old Eli, who has a life-threatening genetic illness called cystic fibrosis. She will share with the subcommittee her family’s experiences with pharma-funded patient assistance programs, including being unable to afford a drug her son needed to stay healthy when funding from a program was not available.
“The undercurrent in all of this is that families like mine are fighting every day not just to keep our children healthy but to keep them alive. Big Pharma has manipulated my family, placing us in an unfair situation when it comes to paying for our drugs with patient assistance programs,” Keeping tells the subcommittee in her written remarks.
“We are dependent on these programs to ensure my son gets the medication he needs to stay healthy and alive. We live each day at their mercy as drug companies get richer off of their games to keep prices high and patients in limbo.”
The hearing will be held at 2:00 PM at 1100 Longworth House Office Building. Watch the hearing here and read Juliana’s prepared remarks here.
###
Did you know: You could buy Super Bowl tickets for you and three of your closest friends and still spend less than you would on a month’s supply of the hepatitis C medication Harvoni.
1. States Lead the Way
The federal government is dragging its feet on drug pricing reforms — but states are moving. Michigan and Nevada are launching initiatives to investigate drug pricing while Illinois just capped out-of-pocket cost for insulin. — (Bridge MI, The Nevada Independent, Chicago Tribune)
2. Paying Twice
A quarter of new drugs developed during the past decade had key, late-stage contributions from taxpayer-funded research, a new study shows. — (Annals of Internal Medicine)
3. Drugs Don’t Work if People Can’t Afford Them!
A new poll found that nearly half of adults denied drug coverage didn’t fill the prescription.You know what would solve this problem? LOWER DRUG PRICES! — (NPR)
4. Stunning Stat
Specialty drugs make up 2.2 percent of prescriptions but account for halfof drug costs, a new analysis shows. — (Modern Healthcare)
5.Sickle Cell Drug WAY Too Expensive
Drug pricing watchdog ICER found that the price of a new sickle cell disease drug, Oxbryta, would have to be cut by 90 percent to represent the true value of the drug. — (FiercePharma)
The only thing harder than tying milk, drug prices, and impeachment together in a joke? Actually lowering drug prices.
1. The Swarm
Big Pharma blasted through another all-time lobbying record, to the tune of $120 million. More pharma boots on the ground means patient voices are more critical now than ever. ✊ — (STAT)
2. Momentum Builds
Momentum is building for real reform in 2020. And Patients For Affordable Drugs is keeping up the fight! Watch a special message from our founder. — (P4AD)
3. ?hole Closed?
A widely loathed coverage gap in Medicare Part D has closed. But seniors are still being exposed to extreme drug costs, and more Congressional reform is needed. — (The New York Times)
4. Free-For-All
Government spending on drugs is outpacing inflation even after manufacturer rebates are accounted for. In other words, we’re all getting mugged behind the scenes while bad actors rake it in. — (Axios)
5. Pass That Bill!
HHS Secretary Alex Azar called the bipartisan Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act from Senators Grassley and Wyden “incredible,” and said, “We’ve got to get that package to the Senate floor.” We agree! Leader McConnell, the gavel’s all yours. — (The Washington Post)
1.LOL
This week, pharma CEOs convened to pitch ideas on how to lower drug prices. Not one offered lower prices as a solution. ? — (CNBC)
2. Triple for Taxpayers
Multiple sclerosis drugs tripled in cost to Medicare and Medicaid in the last seven years. So far, 2020 is more of the same. — (Science Daily)
3. Out of Touch
Insulin maker Eli Lilly is touting new, lower-priced insulin. Too bad $265 isn’t a deal. — (Reuters)
4. Why are Drug Prices So High?
One big cause: patent abuse. How do we fix that? I-MAK’s Priti Krishtel explains. — (TEDWomen)
5. Zolgensma Dystopia
Parents should not have to play the lottery for the health of their children. We need to put an end to Big Pharma’s predatory tactics. — (CTVNews)
