News and Reports | December 17, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs has released the following statement on the retirement of its Founder and President of the Board, David Mitchell.
“After 15 years living with cancer and in continuous treatment, David Mitchell is stepping down as President of the Board and retiring from Patients For Affordable Drugs to focus on his health and family.
David was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable blood cancer, in 2010. Confronted with drug prices exceeding $300,000 a year, he founded Patients For Affordable Drugs in 2016 to ensure that patients would have a seat at the table in shaping the nation’s drug pricing policies. Today, the organization has grown into a community of half a million, with tens of thousands of patients having shared their stories and struggles with high drug prices.
For nearly a decade, David’s relentless commitment to reforming the drug price system – without taking a penny from the industry – made him one of the most trusted and influential voices in the nation on this issue.
David and other P4AD patient advocates played a pivotal role in advancing system-changing reforms and blocking numerous pharma-funded bills that would have harmed patients. Most critically, the drug price reforms in the Inflation Reduction Act – the most transformative piece of health legislation in decades – were passed in 2022, changing the trajectory of drug pricing in the United States. Across six Congresses and three administrations, both Democratic and Republican, David helped turn the tide against Big Pharma’s unchecked power.
As David takes time to focus on his family and ongoing fight against cancer, his legacy endures in the work ahead. While this marks the end of an extraordinary chapter, P4AD’s bipartisan community of patients and allies, led by a committed team, remains steadfast in carrying forward and building on David’s vision: a system in which every person in this country can get the medicines they need at prices they can afford.
To ensure a strong and seamless transition, Executive Director Merith Basey has been elevated to Chief Executive Officer, where she will continue to lead the organization’s mission and day-to-day work. In addition, two current board members, Charles Hurley and Robert Jones, will serve as the Chairs of the Patients For Affordable Drugs (C3) and Patients For Affordable Drugs Now (C4) boards, respectively. Over the next year, the board will be expanded to further strengthen governance and ensure continued momentum.
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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 PatientsForAffordableDru