| WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now launched another TV ad this week as part of its campaign to ensure patient voices are heard in the midst of multiple million-dollar Big Pharma campaigns full of lies and scare tactics. The new ad features Lynn Scarfuto, a retired nurse and cancer patient, and calls on Congress to let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices. The new ad will run in Washington, D.C., during the month of September and is part of P4ADNow’s seven-figure campaign, which includes an additional TV ad, digital ads running across a variety of websites and news outlets, and congressional outreach, where patient advocates contact their members of Congress to demand passage of legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate. “The medicine I depend on is priced at nearly $15,000 every month. What happens to millions of Americans like me who can’t afford the drugs we so desperately need?” Scarfuto, from Herkimer, N.Y., asks in the ad. “Congress, the opportunity to act is now.” Watch the full ad here. Yesterday, the House Ways And Means Committee voted to advance H.R. 3, a comprehensive bill that allows Medicare to negotiate lower prices, as part of the reconciliation package. The Senate Finance Committee is also currently drafting legislation that will allow Medicare to negotiate, which would deliver on the president’s Build Back Better plan under rules of reconciliation. “Legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices is the most popular provision in the president’s Build Back Better plan, with nearly 9 in 10 voters supporting the proposal,” 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. “Americans understand that despite Big Pharma claims, lower prices and innovation can co-exist and drug company scare tactics won’t work.” The ad complements Patients For Affordable Drugs Now’s 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. All of P4ADNow’s recent ads can be found here. 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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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now released a new digital ad in support of the Department of Health and Human Services’ proposal to adopt an International Pricing Index to lower drug prices in Medicare Part B.
Watch the video here.
Under the proposal, Medicare would pay only 26 percent more than other wealthy countries for drugs administered by physicians or in hospital settings — that’s compared to the 80 percent more it pays today. But Big Pharma is attacking the International Pricing Index because the changes could actually rein in outrageous drug prices.
In a new video, cancer patient and Patients For Affordable Drugs Now founder David Mitchell debunks the myths that drug corporations are spreading about the International Pricing Index. Mitchell points out that, under the changes, his drug prices would drop by $100,000, and his access to life-sustaining treatment would remain exactly the same.
“There’s a bipartisan plan in Washington that would lower the price of my drugs by $100,000,” Mitchell says in the video. “ But Big Pharma has mobilized its message machine, lobbying furiously and spending millions to stop it. Pharma says it will stifle innovation, allow government bureaucrats to control my health care, block my access to these drugs. None of that is true.”
The video release is part of a nationwide, nearly $1 million campaign in support of the International Pricing Index that includes ads on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google. The ads urge Americans to contact their senators and representatives in support of the proposed changes.
According to a recent poll, voters support the HHS proposal to lower drug prices by a 71-point margin (80 percent support vs. 9 percent oppose). Majorities from both parties agree that Democrats and Republicans in Congress should support the proposal.
Importantly, Americans find Big Pharma’s claim that the proposed reforms would hinder patient access to be wrong. Eight in 10 voters believe the proposal will result in better care or have no impact on the care they receive. That’s bolstered by the fact that nine out of 10 big pharmaceutical companies actually spend more on advertising and marketing than on research and development, according to The Washington Post. There is no evidence the proposed Part B changes would impact patient access to drugs unless drug corporations withhold drugs from patients.
TRANSCRIPT
I have incurable blood cancer.
The drugs keeping me alive are priced at $325,000 a year.
There’s a bipartisan plan in Washington that would lower the price of my drugs by $100,000.
But Big Pharma has mobilized its message machine, lobbying furiously and spending millions to stop it.
Pharma says it will stifle innovation, allow government bureaucrats to control my health care, block my access to these drugs.
None of that is true.
The truth is the International Pricing Index keeps all the protections we now have to ensure access to these drugs.
It just brings the prices we pay in the US more in line with what other countries pay.
We can’t let Big Pharma and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with their millions of dollars of high-powered lobbyists stop this proposal from taking effect that would help so many Americans.
Tell your members of Congress to support the International Pricing Index.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Big Pharma is opening its wallet and pulling out the same old scare tactics to block a proposal that would lower drug prices in Medicare Part B. Under a draft proposal from the Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare would pay only 26 percent more than other wealthy countries for drugs administered by physicians or in hospital settings instead of the 80 percent more it pays today. But before public comments have been filed, special interest groups and drug company lobbyists are mounting an effort to kill the proposed reforms. A Big Pharma front group is bankrolling a $1 million ad campaign to falsely smear proposed Part B changes. The claims in the ads are lies — pure and simple. Patients For Affordable Drugs NOW will be sending letters to radio stations requesting that they cease airing these misleading ads immediately.
BIG PHARMA SPENDING TO KILL A MEDICARE PART B CHANGE
Radio ads: A Pharma-funded front group secretly bought $998,884 in radio ads across the country. The ads encourage residents to call Senators and tell them to oppose the Part B proposal. See a list of the ad rates and stations running the spot here and here, and listen to the ad here.
Digital Ads: The drug industry’s lobbying arm, PhRMA, is blanketing Washington health publications in an attempt to mislead policymakers and the public. Click here to view the PhRMA-sponsored ads.
New Web Pages: PhRMA’s misleading campaign includes a raft of blogs packed with inaccurate information that suggests patient care would be under threat if drug prices are lowered in the Medicare program.
AstroTurf Tactics: A coalition of hundreds of so-called patient advocacy groups entangled with Big Pharma interests sent a misleading letter to Congressional leadership. Read the letter here.
MYTH vs FACT
Blog posts and advertisements by Big Pharma contain a multitude of falsehoods, misleading statements, and outright lies. Here are a few:
Big Pharma Myth: Changes to Medicare Part B “threaten patient access to treatment options and care.”
Fact: As an organization that represents patients who are kept alive by Part B drugs, we are outraged that Big Pharma claims the proposal would hinder patient access. Under this proposal, Medicare would pay only 26 percent more than other wealthy countries, down from the current average of 80 percent more. This move would increase access to lifesaving drugs by bringing U.S. prices more in line with other wealthy nations. There is no evidence this proposed Part B demonstration would impact patient access to drugs unless drug corporations withhold drugs from patients.
Big Pharma Myth: The system works fine just the way it is and the government should not “replace a market-based system with government price setting.”
Fact: The system is broken. Doctors who administer Medicare Part B drugs are incentivized to choose higher-priced medications because they benefit from the reimbursement structure in the Medicare program. Patients are forgoing medication because they cannot afford the drugs. Medicare already sets the prices for these drugs –– it is the average sales price plus 6 percent, which is 80 percent higher than what people pay in other wealthy nations.
Big Pharma Myth: The Part B demonstration will “weaken incentives for the development of new treatments for serious, life-threatening diseases.”
Fact: Nine out of 10 big pharmaceutical companies spend more on advertising and marketing than on research. Taxpayers foot the bill for basic science that leads to new drugs through the $37 billion spent by the National Institutes of Health. According to HHS, the proposed Medicare changes could reduce drug company R&D spending by less than one percent. We can have both innovation and lower prescription drug prices.
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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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