WASHINGTON, DC — David Mitchell, a patient with incurable blood cancer and the President of Patients For Affordable Drugs, issued the following statement in response to President Donald Trump’s promise to lower drug prices during his State of the Union address:
“Patients are watching. We are angry and hurting. And we plan to hold the President accountable to his promise tonight that drug prices will come down this year. He should start by supporting the bipartisan CREATES Act and Medicare price negotiation. Both are common sense reforms—the kind he’s promised us before. No more words. Action. The clock is ticking.”
The CREATES Act (S. 974) aims to stop big drug corporations that block competition by refusing to allow their brand name drugs to be used in testing needed to get approval for generic competitors. If passed, people would get access to lower priced generic drugs faster, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates taxpayers would save $3.3 billion.
BACKGROUND
“One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs. In many other countries, these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the United States. And it’s very, very unfair. That is why I’ve directed my administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of my top priorities for the year. And prices will come down substantially. Watch.” [State of the Union Address, 1/30/18]
“Our drug industry has been disastrous…They supply our drugs, but they don’t make them here. To a large extent. And the other thing we have to do is create a new bidding procedures for the drug industry because they’re getting away with murder.” [Forbes, 11/01/17]
“Pharma has a lot of lobbies, a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power. And there’s very little bidding on drugs…We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world, and yet we don’t bid properly.” [Washington Post, 11/11/17]
“But the problem is, we don’t negotiate – we’re the largest drug producer, and — we’re the largest drug buyer in the world. We don’t negotiate. We don’t negotiate…If we negotiated the price of drugs, Joe, we’d save $300 billion a year.” [MSNBC, 2/17/16]
“He’s going to get those prescription drug prices way down as a little bit of an extra.It’s gonna come rocketing down.” [Secretary Azar Swearing in Ceremony, White House YouTube 35:16]
