WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs announced a national campaign to help pass the CREATES Act, a bipartisan bill that would lower drug prices and save taxpayers billions. The legislation prevents brand drug manufacturers from gaming our system and blocking cheaper generic drugs from coming to market. The bill enjoys support from a bipartisan group of senators including Mike Lee, John McCain, Chuck Grassley, Dianne Feinstein, and Patrick Leahy, among others. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the CREATES Act would save taxpayers $3.3 billion over the next decade.

“President Trump, Republicans, and Democrats have all voiced frustration with high drug prices. But speaking out is not enough. They must act, and this bill is a bipartisan win for patients,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the President and Founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs. “The CREATES Act is a common sense solution to stop drug companies from blocking cheaper generics that will bring down skyrocketing drug prices.”

As part of the campaign to encourage Congress to pass the CREATES Act, Patients For Affordable Drugs will:

• Organize letters to members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, featuring stories of patients in their districts and urging support for the bill.
• Activate an online advocacy tool that allows constituents to directly contact their elected representatives and urge support for the bill.
• Launch a social media graphics detailing positive impacts of the CREATES Act.
• Coordinate meetings with patients and their congressional members to discuss the need for competition and lower prices, including flying patients from key states and districts to Washington, DC.

For more than five years, David Mitchell took the drug Revlimid to keep his cancer at bay. Over that time, the price rose from about $8,000 to $10,691 per treatment. At exactly the same time, the drug maker–Celgene–abused the law to deny samples of its drug to generic manufacturers who wanted to bring a cheaper competitor to market. As a result, David and patients like him paid thousands of dollars more in out-of-pocket costs.

Patients For Affordable Drugs has heard from scores of patients across the country struggling to pay for drugs. One wrote: “The drugs I need cost about $7,000 per year out-of-pocket. That’s with Medicare and good supplemental insurance. It’s wrong and the laws need to change to help people.”

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