ICYMI: Patient Advocates Speak Directly To Congress Demanding Drug Pricing Reform In P4ADNow’s New Video

“No More Excuses. Let Medicare Negotiate. Now.”

Drug pricing was trending in 2021. Here’s a look back at patient advocacy wins and progress toward victories in the year to come.

Welcome to the Year in Review.

1. One-On-Ones With The White House

• As the Biden administration worked with lawmakers to craft the reconciliation package, patients across the country brought their stories to the highest office in the land. They offered the president their support as he pushes to deliver on his commitment to lower drug prices. Patient advocates Gail deVore, Iesha Meza, and Sa’Ra Skipper, who all live with type 1 diabetes, met with President Biden at the White House to share their experiences with high insulin prices and discuss the urgent need to include drug pricing reforms in the legislation. Iesha also introduced the president ahead of his December remarks on how the Build Back Better Act will lower drug prices, and Gail followed up with Vice President Harris to talk about getting the bill across the finish line.

2. Fighting Pharma’s Falsehoods

• The pharmaceutical industry and its front groups worked overtime in 2021 to spread misleading claims that drug pricing reforms will hurt patients, but the facts aren’t on their side. In response, P4AD released an innovation report and a video debunking pharma’s falsehoods that reforms would hinder innovation and explaining how we can have the innovation we need at prices we can afford. To refute unsubstantiated claims that drug price reforms will lead to reduced access to prescription drugs, P4ADNow launched a video and David Mitchell penned an op-ed emphasizing how lower drug prices will increase patient access to medications they need. Price hike reports show that pharma raises prices at will, resulting in outrageous costs for patients, enormous profits for drug companies, and huge paydays for their executives. To highlight Big Pharma’s web of influence, P4AD released a report detailing how the financial and organizational relationships between drug companies and major patient groups constrain these groups from advocating for meaningful legislation to lower drug prices. Over and over again, independent fact checkers rated pharma and its allies’ claims as false. The truth is that patients need Medicare negotiation now for real relief from high prices, and we must not fall for pharma’s fear-mongering. 

3. Congressional Priority: Drug Pricing

• This year, Congress is closer than it has been in nearly two decades to addressing high drug prices. Lawmakers wrapped up an investigation into pharmaceutical pricing practices and the House passed the Build Back Better Act including a hardfought compromise on drug pricing reforms. Patients shared their stories at all of the congressional hearings held on drug pricing and utilized an advocacy hub launched by P4ADNow to voice how they have been harmed by high prescription drug prices. P4AD founder David Mitchell spoke at hearings and press conferences about the urgent need for reforms. P4ADNow and influential organizations representing seniors, union workers, and patients ran ad campaigns urging Congress to seize the opportunity to help Americans by lowering drug prices. These groups, along with frontline Democrats, also sent letters to congressional leadership and penned op-eds pushing Congress and the White House to include drug pricing reform in the reconciliation package.  

4. Patients Fired Up

• In addition to sharing their stories with the White House and Congress, patients advocated for drug pricing reforms by writing to national and local publications, appearing in ad campaigns urging members of Congress to support Medicare negotiation, signing letters to Capitol Hill, and speaking to news media. Patients in Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Oregon also delivered testimony and wrote op-eds in support of state legislation, including bills that would ban pay-for-delay deals and create prescription drug affordability boards. We are so thankful to all the patients who have dedicated their time to fighting for legislative reforms. The national conversation on drug pricing would not exist without your voices.

5. Thank You, Taxpayers

• In the second year of the pandemic, drug companies pointed to the development of the COVID-19 vaccines as a reason why prices must be kept high — failing to tell the full story involving billions of dollars in government investment in vaccine research and development. P4AD’s David Mitchell penned a New York Times op-ed, Wall Street Journal letter, and blog post that lays out how the government and taxpayers underwrote the risk while drug companies now stand to shatter sales records and collect billions of dollars from the vaccines. “To all those drug corporations and executives making billions from those of us paying the bills,” Mitchell writes, “You’re welcome.”

TV Ad Features Three Patient Advocates: “Americans Can’t Wait Any Longer”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now launched a new video ad today calling on Congress to include the previously negotiated reforms that lower drug prices in any final reconciliation package. The 30-second video ad is running in Washington, D.C., and features three patient advocates: Therese Ball of Indiana, Kris Garcia of Colorado, and Iesha Meza of Arizona. In addition, the campaign includes digital static ads in D.C. as well as grassroots advocacy in key states, where patients call their senators and ask for their support on the current drug price provisions. 

The video ad opens with Therese, who lives with multiple sclerosis. “The medications I need to live are priced at over $7,000 every month,” she says. “Millions of Americans can’t afford the medicines they need to survive,” continues Iesha, who lives with type 1 diabetes and depends on insulin. Kris, who lives with multiple bleeding disorders, including hemophilia, adds, “Congress needs to let Medicare negotiate lower drug prices for us.”

“The landmark drug price provisions negotiated painstakingly over several months and included in the Build Back Better plan remain the top priority for Americans and are overwhelmingly supported by more than 80 percent of voters – Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike,” 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. “This legislation will save lives, lower prices, and fight inflation by holding the line on premiums and health care costs for patients, employers, employees, and taxpayers. Failure is not an option – we need Congress to pass these historic reforms in any reconciliation package that is finally agreed to.”

The ads launch as the Senate reconvenes to continue negotiations around the reconciliation package. The drug price provisions under consideration will, for the first time, authorize Medicare to negotiate prices directly for some of the most expensive prescription medicines, including insulin; institute a hard cap on out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries; and limit annual price increases to stop price gouging by drug corporations. 

“Any reconciliation package must include reforms that lower drug prices,” the video ad concludes. “Americans can’t wait any longer.”

Watch the full ad here and view the digital ads below. 

P4ADNow also launched a new radio ad today in West Virginia calling on Senator Manchin to support the reconciliation package to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. All recent P4ADNow ads can be found here. 

“We Need Senator Manchin’s Support. His Vote Will Make The Difference For West Virginians. Please, Senator Manchin, Don’t Let This Moment Slip Away”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now launched a new radio ad today as part of its ongoing campaign in West Virginia. The ad highlights Senator Joe Manchin’s opportunity to deliver on his strong support for Medicare negotiation to lower drug prices for West Virginians by swiftly passing a reconciliation package that includes strong drug price reforms. The campaign includes a new 60-second radio ad and grassroots advocacy, in which patients call the senator directly thanking him for supporting Medicare negotiation and asking him to support the reconciliation package, including the current provisions that will lower drug prices for West Virginians.

“Patients have been waiting nearly 20 years for Medicare to be allowed to negotiate lower prices on their behalf. Right now, we are closer than we have ever been to closing a deal that would be historic in lowering drug prices for West Virginians and all Americans,” 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. “Big Pharma is doing everything in its power to block this from happening, and we need Senator Manchin’s support for a reconciliation package that includes provisions allowing Medicare to negotiate. Patients have waited too long; we can’t let this moment slip away.”  

The ad launches as the Senate reconvenes and continues negotiations around the reconciliation package. The drug price provisions under consideration will, for the first time, authorize Medicare to negotiate prices directly for some of the most expensive prescription medicines, including insulin; institute a hard cap on out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries; and limit annual price increases to stop price gouging by drug corporations. 

“It makes no sense at all that we don’t go out and negotiate. The VA does a tremendous job. Medicaid does it. Why doesn’t Medicare?” Senator Manchin says in the radio ad. The voiceover adds, “We’ve never been so close. The plan in Congress could pass right now. But we need Senator Manchin’s support. His vote will make the difference for West Virginians. Please, Senator Manchin, don’t let this moment slip away.” 

Listen to the full radio ad here.

P4ADNow also released a new TV ad today in Washington, D.C., demanding that Congress include the previously negotiated reforms that lower drug prices in any final reconciliation package. All of P4ADNow’s recent ads can be viewed here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The following statement was issued by David Mitchell, a cancer patient and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, following the announcement that Congress will not pass Build Back Better this year:

“We are very disappointed that Congress will not pass reforms to lower drug prices before the end of the year. As Democrats in Congress consider how to move forward on a reconciliation package, however, the provisions painstakingly negotiated to lower drug prices must be maintained. 

“The drug price provisions in the current Build Back Better package are the top priority for Americans – overwhelmingly supported by more than 80 percent of voters – Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike. By allowing negotiations, capping price increases at the rate of inflation, and limiting out-of-pocket costs for seniors and people who are insulin-dependent, the historic reforms will make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients and all Americans. These reforms will also protect innovation by maintaining our current system in which drug companies will be able to set prices on new drugs and be rewarded with a period of exclusivity lasting five to 12 years. Further, they will be exempt from negotiations for nine to 13 years.

“Importantly, the drug provisions will fight inflation by holding the line on premiums and health care costs for employers, employees, and taxpayers. These provisions will actually produce a net savings for the government instead of contributing to the deficit. 

“Medicare negotiation to lower prescription drug prices passed the House and enjoys the support of all 50 Democratic senators. We hope to work with members in both chambers of Congress to finish the job and pass these landmark reforms swiftly in the new year. We have never been as close as we are now. Failure is not an option.”