WASHINGTON, D.C. — The following statement was issued by David Mitchell, a cancer patient and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, in response to the release today of the Biden administration’s Comprehensive Plan for Addressing High Drug Prices: A Report in Response to the Executive Order on Competition in the American Economy:
“The plan issued today by the Biden administration is bold, comprehensive, and exciting. It will spur innovation and research into new treatments that patients want and need, and ensure that those new medicines are available at prices families and our nation can afford. It will improve the health and financial well-being of patients across the country. We look forward to working with the administration and Congress to implement its recommendations, including enacting legislation this year that will allow Medicare to negotiate lower prices on behalf of Americans.”
Background:
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now announced it is launching a new phase of its campaign today to combat recent Big Pharma lies and scare tactics. This seven-figure push includes a new TV ad that calls out the industry’s falsehoods and calls on Congress to listen to patients and pass Medicare negotiation. This leg of P4ADNow’s ongoing campaign also includes digital ads that will run across a variety of websites and news outlets and congressional outreach, where patient advocates will contact their members of Congress to demand passage of legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate.
“Drug companies will stop at nothing to maintain their monopoly power to dictate prices of brand-name drugs,” said David Mitchell, a patient with incurable blood cancer whose drugs carry a list price of more than $900,000 per year and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “As momentum grows to pass legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, the industry is pouring tens of millions of dollars into scaring patients with false and misleading ads, as it has done so many times in the past. This time, we aren’t letting Big Pharma get away with it. Medicare negotiation will improve access to medicines and save lives by lowering prices.”
P4ADNow’s new TV ad, which will run in Washington, D.C., during the month of September, speaks to Congress, saying: “Don’t listen to the lies. Don’t listen to the threats. Don’t listen to the lobbyists. Listen to patients.”
Watch the full ad here.
Big Pharma and its paid front groups launched two new ads just this week, demonstrating again their willingness to push whatever lies they believe will work to stop reform. The first ad is a scam that says that legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate will “cut your benefits and no longer pay for life-saving medicines.” Both claims are lies. Medicare negotiation legislation under consideration will actually improve Medicare benefits and access to drugs. The second ad claims that Medicare negotiation will “put up barriers” for patients. This is also false. The biggest barrier to access is price, and Medicare negotiation will improve access by lowering prices. These proposals will also encourage innovation by ensuring we pay the best prices for the best drugs and by allocating additional dollars to federal research to help spur innovation and new drug development.
“As a patient with an incurable disease who depends on innovative drug development to stay alive, Big Pharma’s deceiving message is truly offensive,” Mitchell continued. “Contrary to this propaganda, Medicare negotiation will actually help millions of Americans get the innovation we need at prices we can afford. And 90 percent of Americans support it. ”
The ad complements Patients For Affordable Drugs Now’s new fact check and video that break down false claims in pharma-funded ads, including misleading claims about the implications of repealing the non-interference clause and direct Medicare negotiation.
This phase of work launches as the Senate Finance Committee is drafting legislation that would allow Medicare to negotiate, which would deliver on the president’s Build Back Better plan. The House of Representatives will begin marking up the reconciliation package, including a version of its Medicare negotiation legislation, H.R. 3, next week.
Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is the only independent national patient organization focused exclusively on policy changes to lower prescription drug prices. It does not accept funding from any organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.
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Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. Negotiation *Improves* Access
2. Another Day, Another Lie
3. In Case You Weren’t Sure
One more thing: This week, Americans continued to write in support of Medicare negotiation, with powerful letters and op-eds from patients and advocates in Arizona, Nevada, Ohio, and West Virginia.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now released a new video that exposes how Big Pharma’s recent multi-million dollar ad campaigns are full of lies about how Medicare negotiation would limit access to drugs. The 40-second video, featuring cancer patient and P4ADNow founder David Mitchell, explains that congressional Democrats’ plan to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices would increase access as drugs become more affordable.
The video comes on the heels of Patients For Affordable Drugs’ new fact checkthat breaks down six false claims in pharma-funded ads, including misleading claims about the implications of repealing the non-interference clause and direct Medicare negotiation.
Both the new video and the fact check debunk industry ads currently being run by PhRMA itself, Medicare Today, the Pharmaceutical Industry Labor-Management Association, the American Conservative Union, and other industry-allied groups that total more than $18 million this year.
Read the video transcript below and watch the full video here.
Transcript:
I have incurable cancer, and prescription drugs are keeping me alive.
No one cares more about access to drugs than patients like me.
Big Pharma’s running ads saying the Democrats in Congress want to limit access to prescription drugs.
It’s not true.
High prices limit access to medications people need right now.
The Democratic plan would actually improve access by allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prices.
Nothing in the plan limits access to drugs.
It’s another Big Pharma big lie. Don’t fall for it.
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Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. Fact Or Pharma?
2. “The Tides Are Finally Shifting”
3. Sounding Off: Letters For Lower Drug Prices
STATEMENT: CBO Report Reiterates Drug Pricing Reform Will Have Minimal Impact On New Drugs Coming To Market
Lower Prices Could Improve Americans’ Overall Health By Making Drugs More Affordable
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The following statement was issued by David Mitchell, a cancer patient and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, in response to the Congressional Budget Office’s Simulation of New Drug Development:
“The CBO’s new analysis regarding the connection between lowering drug company revenue and drug company investment in developing new drugs concludes that drug pricing legislation will have less of an impact on the number of drugs coming to market than in CBO’s 2019 analysis. While the report finds that there is a potential for seven percent fewer new drugs to come to market under Medicare negotiation in the next three decades, it does not examine the impact on patients, access to medication, or the health of the American people.
“As we know, a new drug does not necessarily mean new innovation — only 10 to 15 percent of new drugs represent true therapeutic advancements. The seven percent loss may have no effect on development of truly innovative medications that would bring patients relief and command higher prices.
“CBO confirms and reiterates what we already know about Medicare negotiation — the impact on innovation will be negligible or nonexistent: we can mitigate any effect on new drugs by making sure the negotiation framework rewards value and by investing more money into the public agenciesthat lead to the most innovative drugs with the most therapeutic significance.”
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Welcome to the Week in Review.
1. To Those Standing With Patients: Thank You
2. “Put The Patients First”
3. A Profitable Pandemic
One more thing: Watch HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra discuss the need for lower drug prices and how President Biden’s plan balances pricing and innovation in a segment for Yahoo! Finance.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now launched a seven-figure ad buy today across 12 House districts thanking representatives for supporting proposals to lower drug prices by allowing Medicare negotiation. This campaign counters Big Pharma’s recent attack ads against H.R. 3, a House bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate on behalf of Americans. The ads will run on cable and broadcast in 12 districts during August recess and feature three patients who have struggled to afford their prescription drugs.
“Americans are paying almost four times what people in other wealthy nations pay for the same brand-name drugs. Members of Congress know that 9 out of 10 Americans support reforms that allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for the people of this country,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now.
“We want to send a clear message to those members of the House standing with patients in support of Medicare negotiation — we thank you and we have your back,” Mitchell continued. “Contrary to Big Pharma’s lies, we can have the innovation we need at prices patients can afford. As the president said last week, high drug prices ‘put the squeeze on too many families and strip them of their dignity … Medicare is going to negotiate a fair price!’”
The ads highlight three patient advocates: Jackie, a cancer patient in Muskego, Wisconsin, whose treatment, Revlimid, is priced at over $20,000 per month; Ashley, a psoriatic arthritis patient in Houston who relied on Humira, which is currently priced at $5,968 per month; and Marcus, who lives with type 1 diabetes in Cincinnati and struggles to afford his insulin.
“Because insulin is so expensive, I’ve had to skip and ration my doses,” Marcus, a husband, father, and minister, says in the ad.
“It’s really simple,” Ashley explains. “Prescription drugs don’t work if people can’t afford them.”
The ads end with a message thanking each representative. “Right now, there’s a plan in Congress to let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices,” says the ad in Kansas’ third congressional district. “Sharice Davids supports it. Representative Davids, thank you.”
The ads will run in the following districts:
P4ADNow’s House ads begin airing days after the launch of a new national adthat calls on Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate, as well as a new advocacy website — MedicareNegotiation.org — for patients to advocate for Congress to pass legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices.
The House of Representatives reintroduced Medicare negotiation legislation H.R. 3 in April. Since then, President Biden has called on Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. The Senate has voted to move forward with drafting a legislative package to deliver on the president’s Build Back Better plan, which includes lowering drug prices through Medicare negotiation, and the Senate Finance Committee is reportedly drafting another bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate, and is likely to be included in the Senate’s final package.
In addition to P4ADNow’s campaign, other groups such as AARP and Protect Our Care are also running sizable ad campaigns to counter pharma’s ads and remind Congress that patients support Medicare negotiation.
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