WASHINGTON, DC — Patients For Affordable Drugs is pleased to announce October’sDrug Price Fighting Heroes: Andy Slavitt, the former head of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Rebecca Hall, a metastatic breast cancer patient. Andy and Rebecca have used their platforms as a health care leader and patient advocate, respectively, to push for policies to lower drug prices.
Former CMS administrator Andy Slavitt has played an active role in the fight to lower drug prices. He voiced his support for allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Andy knows lower drug prices and innovation can co-exist. “So the question is: can we have both innovation and the affordability necessary to make it accessible? I think the answer is yes,” he told STAT News. Andy has been steadfast in calling out the pharmaceutical industry, noting that, despite massive corporate tax cuts, the drug industry has refused to lower prices.
Rebecca Hall lives with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. People who battle breast cancer often experience extreme financial hardship due to the expense of their prescription drugs. Herceptin clocks in at $76,000 for a year-long regimen. She’s lent her voice in the fight to lower drug prices, sharing her story with Patients For Affordable Drugs and I-MAK, an organization focused on patent reform. Rebecca has also been an outspoken advocate within the metastatic breast cancer community, writing about her experiences with late-stage breast cancer and sharing her story in Bare, a film she co-wrote to show that other young women with metastatic breast cancer are not alone.
“Andy and Becky come from different walks of life, but both share a commendable commitment to lowering drug prices,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder and president of Patients For Affordable Drugs. “We are happy to honor and thank them for their work.”
Patients For Affordable Drugs’ Price Fighting Heroes is a series highlighting advocates in the fight to lower prescription drug prices.
We will honor patients, private sector leaders, policy makers, and elected officials who are advocating for patients and fighting for lower drug prices. In doing so, we hope to encourage others to join the fight and continue their good work.
We plan to feature our heroes on our social media accounts and blog, lift up their stories in the media, and honor them at an event in 2019.
If you have someone you want to nominate as a hero, you can do so here.
Patients For Affordable Drugs is the only independent national patient organization focused exclusively on achieving policy changes to lower the price of prescription drugs.
