STATEMENT: P4ADNow Applauds Senate Judiciary Committee’s Bipartisan Passage Of Bills To Promote Competition And Stop Patent Abuses By Drug Companies

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 Senate Judiciary Committee’s bipartisan, unanimous passage of a package of four bills that would lower drug prices and promote innovation by curbing anticompetitive behavior by pharmaceutical corporations: 

“We applaud Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Grassley, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee for passing legislation to crack down on anticompetitive drug industry practices and strengthen incentives for true biomedical innovation. This package of bills takes important steps to address abuses of our patent system that inhibit innovation, block competition, and allow drug corporations to raise prices without restraint. 

“Today’s unanimous vote also lends important momentum to the larger work in Congress to fix our broken drug pricing system. We will continue to work with Congress this year to enact other needed reforms, including allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for all Americans.”

Background:

• The Senate Judiciary Committee markup took place this morning. Watch the video recording here. The package of bills will next move to the full Senate for a vote. 
• The legislative package includes the following bills: 
  • S. 1435, Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2021, would amend the Federal Trade Commission Act to define product hopping as anticompetitive and facilitate biosimilar market entry by disincentivizing patent thicketing behavior by biologic drug makers.
  • S. 1425, Stop STALLING Act, would eliminate drug company abuse of the Food and Drug Administration’s citizen petition program by deeming submission of sham petitions as anticompetitive under the FTC Act and giving the FTC authority to penalize companies engaged in this behavior.
  • S. 1428, Preserve Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act, would crack down on collusive pay-for-delay settlements by making them presumptively anticompetitive, a reform that would stop brand-name companies from artificially lengthening monopoly periods in an effort to keep more affordable alternatives away from consumers.
  • S. 1388, Prescription Pricing for the People Act of 2021, would require the FTC to examine the effects of consolidation on pricing and other potentially abusive behavior within the pharmacy benefit manager industry.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs founder David Mitchell will tell his story of living with incurable blood cancer and will debunk Big Pharma’s claim that patients won’t get innovative drugs without paying high prices at a 10:00 AM hearing today on rising drug prices.
 
Read his full testimony here.
 
Mitchell’s testimony will highlight stories of patients skipping doses and going into debt to afford rising prescription drug prices. And he’ll focus on the fact that right now, nearly 1 in 3 adults report not taking their medicines as prescribed because of the cost. He’ll also discuss three legislative solutions to fix our broken system:

• Reforming our patent laws
• Ending the days of monopoly pricing power without taxpayer negotiations
• Forcing transparency from drug middlemen. 

Key Points From Mitchell’s Testimony:

• “Why do drug companies charge so much? Because they can. Yes, drug companies should profit when they develop innovative drugs. But we are way out of balance, and it’s costing us all—in our family finances, health outcomes, and lives.”
• “We heard from one patient who has sold her furniture, maxed out credit cards, and is skipping doses to afford Revlimid.”
• “Pharma wants us to ask this question: ‘What are we willing to pay to save a life?’ And that’s easy. When it’s your child’s lungs on the line, when it’s your wife’s diabetes, your husband’s cancer, the answer is ‘anything.’ But that’s the wrong question. We should be asking: ‘What is the right amount of money that drug companies should make on these drugs?’”

Patients For Affordable Drugs is a national patient organization focused exclusively on policies to lower prescription drug prices. We amplify the voices of Americans struggling under crushing drug prices to make policymakers and elected officials see the heavy toll of high-priced drugs. Patients For Affordable Drugs does not accept contributions from any organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Tuesday, May 7 at 10:00 AM, Patients For Affordable Drugs Founder David Mitchell will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a hearing on rising prescription drug prices.

Mitchell will discuss his journey as a patient with incurable blood cancer and will offer a number of solutions to lower drug prices. He will encourage bipartisan action to address this issue, including reforming the country’s patent laws, ending the days of monopoly pricing power without taxpayer negotiations, and forcing transparency from drug middlemen.

WHAT: Full Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, “Intellectual Property and the Price of Prescription Drugs: Balancing Innovation and Competition”
WHEN: Tuesday, May 7 at 10:00 AM
WHERE: Dirksen Senate Office Building 226, or watch online
WITNESSES: 
Joshua D. Barker, Director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
David Mitchell, President and Founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs
James Stansel, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
Michael Carrier, Professor of law at Rutgers Law School
David S. Olson, Associate Professor at Boston College Law School

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs Now applauded and thanked the Senate Judiciary Committee for passing the bipartisan CREATES Act — a bill that aims to lower drug prices by speeding generics to market. In response to the committee voting 16 to 5 to move the bill for consideration by the full Senate, Executive Director Ben Wakana issued the following statement:

“Months of intense opposition from Big Pharma could not kill this bill, and nothing will stop patients from demanding solutions like the CREATES Act to lower drug prices. Chairman Grassley, Senator Leahy, and all committee members voting yes deserve credit for fighting for patients today. Drug corporations should stop safeguarding bad actors and instead focus on getting affordable medicine to Americans who need it.”

BACKGROUND:

• The CREATES Act (S. 974 and H.R. 2212) would stop big drug companies from blocking competition by refusing to allow their brand name drugs to be used in testing needed to get approval for generic competitors. If passed, patients would get access to lower-priced generic drugs faster.
   
• Eighty six organizations representing patients, doctors, the research and development community, and large employers sent letters urging Congress to pass the CREATES Act.
   
• The Congressional Budget Office estimated the CREATES Act would save taxpayers $3.8 billion over 10 years.
   
• In May, the FDA released a list of more than 50 drug makers accused by generic drug corporations of stalling providing samples that would increase competition and lower prices. According to Kaiser Health News, the drug makers on the FDA’s list are also responsible for double-digit percentage price hikes since 2012, which cost Medicare and Medicaid nearly $12 billion in 2016.
   
• The pharmaceutical lobby amped up lobbying to $25 million last year and continues to oppose the CREATES Act despite calls from Scott Gottlieb, conservative groups like FreedomWorks, and Harvard academics to end REMS abuses.

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