Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. — “Don’t Get Fooled Again.” That’s the message from cancer patient and founder and president of Patients For Affordable Drugs David Mitchell to 50 Democratic members of the House. The members all signed on to a letter supporting drug corporations’ lobbying efforts to rollback Big Pharma’s contribution to Medicare that saves patients and taxpayers money.

WASHINGTON, DC — Seniors are filling fewer prescriptions for brand-named drugs, but they’re spending significantly more because list prices keep going up, according to a new government report. In response, David Mitchell, a cancer patient and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs, issued the following statement.

“We have an incredibly powerful, incredibly productive research and development program being run by N.I.H.,” Ameet Sarpatwari, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, said. “Taxpayers put in money that is paying big dividends, and yet we pay higher prices for prescription drugs than any other country. In effect, we have taxpayers paying twice.”

St. Louis — Patients For Affordable Drugs stood with Lora Moser, a cystic fibrosis patient unable to afford the medicines her family spent decades fundraising to develop, and launched a new campaign demanding that Vertex Pharmaceuticals lower the price of its life-extending drugs.

Moser and Patients For Affordable Drugs were represented Thursday at a meeting of the Institute For Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) by Juliana Keeping, mother to Eli, 5, who also has cystic fibrosis.

WASHINGTON, DC — Patients For Affordable Drugs sent a petition with more than 1,000 signatures demanding pharmaceutical giant AbbVie stop delaying the introduction of biosimilar alternatives to Humira, a move that hurts patients by keeping prices high.

The company announced in April it had inked a deal with manufacturer Samsung Bioepis that would guarantee AbbVie market exclusivity on Humira — the world’s top-selling drug — through 2023. It’s the second deal the drugmaker has signed in the last year to stifle competition and maintain high prices in the US.

WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump today gave a highly-anticipated speech on his Administration’s plans to lower drug prices. He railed against high prices and a rigged system, and we appreciate that he brought the rhetorical heat. But we must judge this set of proposals based on the substance and the standard the president set himself in his State of the Union Address: “Prices will come down, watch.”

“Today’s announcement contains some good, some bad, and some missing components to lower drug prices,” said David Mitchell, a patient with incurable cancer and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs (P4AD) called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate a pay-for-delay deal cut by the pharmaceutical giant AbbVie. In a letter to Congress and the Federal Trade Commission, the patient group asked the FTC to investigate whether AbbVie’s recent deal with Samsung Bioepis is anti-competitive and violates antitrust laws.

“AbbVie is using pay-for-delay deals to keep a cheaper generic off the market and patients are the victims," said David Mitchell, president and co-founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs. “We believe it is illegal and anti-competitive, and we are asking the FTC to step in and protect patients from AbbVie’s price hikes.”

COLUMBUS, OHIO — Patients For Affordable Drugs (P4AD), a bipartisan national patient organization, endorsed HB 479, a bill to prohibit secretive contracts by drug corporation middlemen that keep Ohio patients in the dark about their prescription drug prices.

Patients For Affordable Drugs brought together Ohio residents Saturday in Columbus for a training focused on how to effectively organize, mobilize, and fight for lower drug prices.