Media | January 30, 2025
Patients Urge Drug Companies To Stop Attempts To Block Lower Negotiated Prices From Taking Effect
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs, alongside patient advocates and allies including Public Citizen, Social Security Works, and SPACEs in Action, gathered in Washington, D.C. to demand drug companies drop their lawsuits aimed at blocking Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices for millions of patients.
Patients, who led the charge in delivering 202,000 petition signatures to PhRMA headquarters, shared their stories about how high drug prices have caused immense financial harm and how Big Pharma prioritizes extreme profits at the expense of patients who pay between four to eight times more than patients in similar high income countries for the same medications.
“I’ve struggled living with chronic illnesses including psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, causing arthritis flares and painful swelling of joints, and I’ve had three joint replacements. Doctors prescribed Enbrel to mitigate my flare-ups and prevent future joint damage caused by my arthritis. In 2023 alone, I paid over $9,000 out-of-pocket for Enbrel, necessitating us to actually dip into my retirement to do some much-needed home repairs. No one should have to carry that burden in order to access essential medicines,” said Judy Aiken, a patient advocate in Portland, Maine.
“For millions of Americans like me, our lives hang in the balance whether or not we can afford our life-sustaining medication… Every day people with diabetes go to the pharmacy counter and hear a question that no one wants to hear the answer to: would you still like to fill it? This is not a luxury. This is survival,” shared Emmabella Rudd, a young patient advocate living with type 1 diabetes.
“We have over 35,000 patients who have shared their stories with us alone, and 200,000 signatures here of patients and allies, friends, loved ones, who are demanding that pharma and their allies drop the lawsuits and allow Medicare to negotiate — which is the law,” Merith Basey, Executive Director of Patients For Affordable Drugs, told the crowd of patients and advocates at the demonstration.
You can view a recording of the full event HERE.
Despite the drug companies’ multi-million-dollar legal assault, eight judges have already rejected their attempts to weaken the landmark 2022 prescription drug law. More challenges are on the horizon, making it clear that the fight to protect this historic cost-saving reform is far from over. This event was part of Patients For Affordable Drugs’s “US v. Pharma” campaign launched in March 2024.
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Patients For Affordable Drugs is the only national patient advocacy organization focused exclusively on policies that lower prescription drug prices. We empower and mobilize patients by amplifying their experiences with high drug prices to hold those in power to account and fight to shape and achieve system-changing policies that make prescription drugs affordable for all people in the United States. P4AD does not accept funding from organizations that profit from the development and distribution of drugs. To learn more, visit PatientsForAffordableDrugs.org