WASHINGTON, DC – The following statement was issued by David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, on President Trump’s announcement that he will send $200 discount cards to 33 million Medicare beneficiaries:
“If the president had kept his commitment to lower prescription drug prices, he wouldn’t need to promise some Medicare beneficiaries a dubious discount card days before an election.
“It is not at all clear if this is legal or how the president will pay for his scheme. It is perfectly clear, however, that this will not lower prescription drug prices for 328 million Americans.
“Americans need systemic, enduring reforms to our rigged drug pricing system, not election year gimmicks.”
BACKGROUND
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WASHINGTON, DC – The drug lobby knows no shame. In the past 72 hours, drug corporations offered a flimsy plan. It’s not designed to lower drug prices for all Americans, but to stop the Trump administration from implementing its most-favored nation proposal. In response, Ben Wakana, the executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, issued the following statement:
“Big Pharma’s political stunt is exactly the kind of sorry excuse for a solution you would expect from drug corporations. It’s a PR move designed to block a better plan that would meaningfully lower drug prices. Patients have been promised real reforms to get Americans the best deal of any nation in the world and to lower drug prices by 50 percent. Instead, the drug lobby presented a plan that is voluntary, severely limited in scope, and impermanent.
“Patients resoundingly reject Big Pharma’s offer as an alternative to the most-favored nation plan. It’s too little, too late.”
BACKGROUND
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WASHINGTON, DC – Today marks President Trump’s self-imposed deadline to advance an executive order for a most-favored nation approach to lower prescription drug prices. The president gave the pharmaceutical industry one month to propose a solution to meaningfully lower the list prices of drugs. Instead, drug corporations continued to raise prices and patients continued to struggle. It’s time for change.
“Abandoning the most-favored nation proposal at the 11th hour would be a capitulation to drug corporations,” said Ben Wakana, the executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now. “If President Trump does not implement a proposal to lower the list prices of prescription drugs, he will leave Americans continuing to pay the highest prices in the world.”
Drug prices are not going down by “50%, 60%, maybe 70%” as the president has claimed. Instead, prescription drug prices continue to go up, even during a global pandemic. Pharma has had decades to propose its own solutions to lower drug prices, but with continued price hikes, the drug industry has proven it is unwilling to do so.
Americans overwhelmingly support proposals to lower drug prices by tying them to prices paid in other countries. By a 71-point margin, voters supported the Department of Health and Human Services’ ANPRM to lower drug prices in Medicare Part B by implementing an International Pricing Index. The most-favored nation approach is considered an outgrowth of that idea.
Comprehensive reform to lower the list price of prescription drugs for all Americans requires Congress and the president to come together to enact meaningful and sustainable policy change.
Nearly nine in 10 voters believe it is very important for Congress to lower drug prices, and almost one-third of U.S. adults consider a candidate’s position on lowering drug prices to be “the single most important issue” or “among the most important issues” that will influence their vote in 2020.
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WASHINGTON, DC — Ben Wakana, the executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, issued the following statement after reports that the drug industry has refused an invitation to meet with President Trump. The Tuesday meeting was called to discuss the president’s plan, announced Friday, to align some prescription drug prices in the United States’ Medicare program with lower prices paid in other countries.
“We don’t need Big Pharma’s permission to lower drug prices. The industry has had decades to self-regulate. By canceling tomorrow’s meeting, drug corporations acknowledged they have no intention of lowering drug prices now.
“The Trump administration should move forward immediately with its plan to tie U.S. drug prices to the lower prices paid in other wealthy nations.
“We hope the president will throw the full weight of his office, including upcoming executive orders, behind policies that lower the list prices of drugs for all Americans. Patients are suffering. We don’t have time to wait.”
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WASHINGTON, DC — Ben Wakana, the executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, issued the following statement in response to the Trump administration’s four drug pricing executive orders. The organization previously ran a nearly $1 million campaign in support of one of those orders, HHS’s proposed International Pricing Index.
“The administration’s decision to bring drug prices in Medicare Part B more in line with what other wealthy nations pay would be a positive step if implemented. Abandoning the rule at this stage would be a capitulation to drug corporations.
“Big Pharma has had decades to self-regulate and lower list prices. Not only has it failed to do so, drug corporations continue to raise drug prices –– even in the middle of a pandemic.
“While the Trump administration’s original plan to use international reference pricing was limited — as it would only impact Medicare beneficiaries in half the country, who take certain medications, for a limited amount of time — it would help alleviate the pain of skyrocketing drug prices, and we strongly encourage the rule to be finalized.
“The goal of ridding our system of secret deals between drug companies and pharmacy benefit managers is laudable. We look forward to seeing more details of how this plan will work. In addition, we support the administration’s plans to allow importation from Canada and lower the cost of insulin and EpiPens for patients who rely on Federally Qualified Health Centers.
“We are hopeful the administration moves ahead with these executive orders and look forward to additional details.”
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WASHINGTON, DC — During today’s Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, five drug company executives failed to promise their companies would not make a profit on COVID-19 vaccines. In response, Ben Wakana, the executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, issued the following statement:
“Big Pharma’s not-for-profit pledge turned out to be a PR stunt. Further scrutiny reveals it to be time-limited, dose-limited, and geographically limited. Those conditions assure an unfettered profit for drug corporations. The lesson from today’s hearing is important and unsurprising: Drug corporations plan to profit from COVID-19 vaccines and treatments that were developed with taxpayer funding. It’s time for Congress to put guardrails in place to stop corporations from profiteering during a pandemic.”
The Washington Post // Yasmeen Abutaleb // July 21, 2020
During a hearing with pharmaceutical company executives over efforts to develop a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, the five executives testifying did not promise to offer a vaccine for free or that they would not profit from it.
In response to questions about pricing their vaccines, most company executives refused to commit to not making a profit on it, or they said they would not make a profit in a specific contract or during the pandemic — rather than making any sort of long-term pledge on pricing.
“We recognize these are extraordinary times, and our pricing will reflect that during the time of the pandemic. We’ll price our potential vaccine consistent with the urgent global health emergency that we’re facing,” said John Young, chief business officer of Pfizer, adding that he felt strongly the vaccine should be free to the public.
Mene Pangalos, executive vice president of biopharmaceuticals at AstraZeneca, said the company had agreed to provide 300 million doses to the United States through its $1.2 billion agreement with BARDA at no profit.
The price consumers will pay for a vaccine and therapeutics for the coronavirus has been a point of frequent discussion among congressional lawmakers and at hearings related to the pandemic response. Taxpayers are footing a significant part of the bill for the country’s vaccine development and treatment research, and several lawmakers have raised concerns that pharmaceutical companies will profit during the pandemic.
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WASHINGTON, DC — The following statement was issued today by David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, regarding the introduction of the bipartisan Taxpayer Research and Coronavirus Knowledge (TRACK) Act and Make Medications Affordable by Preventing Pandemic Pricegouging (MMAPPP) Act.
“American taxpayers are fueling the research, development, and purchase of treatments and vaccines to fight coronavirus. Given that investment, we must receive transparency into how our money is spent and the actual costs to produce medicines. Prices for taxpayer-funded vaccines and treatments must be set fairly to ensure affordability and accessibility for all who need them, along with a reasonable return for the drugmaker. The two bipartisan bills introduced today aim to accomplish those public policy imperatives. Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is proud to lend its endorsement and will work to support enactment of these important bills.”
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WASHINGTON, DC — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now sent a letter to Capitol Hill this week urging Congress to focus on three topics in upcoming COVID-19 legislative packages: ensuring taxpayer investment into COVID-19 drugs is factored into prices, helping the nation prepare for future public health emergencies, and addressing the high list prices of prescription drugs as Americans struggle with the impact of the pandemic.
“COVID-19 did not make high drug prices go away — it worsened the crisis for patients,” the letter states. “Every dollar we pay in unjustified profits to drug corporations is a dollar we could use to support ordinary Americans whose health and economic well-being has been devastated by this pandemic. If we had unlimited resources as a nation, these choices wouldn’t matter. But we don’t.”
The letter, addressed to congressional leaders in the House and the Senate and signed by patients from all 50 states, calls for congressional action in three key areas:
Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is an independent, bipartisan patient organization focused on policies to lower drug prices. P4ADNow does not accept funding from any organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.
Read the letter here.
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