WASHINGTON, DC – As Congress this week mulls a slate of reforms to curtail some of Big Pharma’s abusive pricing practices, Patients For Affordable Drugs released a new report that exposes how one of the world’s largest drug corporations is ripping off America. GlaxoSmithKline is the leading maker of blockbuster drugs to treat asthma, lupus, and HIV — which collectively affect 28.6 million people in the US and disproportionately affect children, women, and minorities. The report, “The Truth About GlaxoSmithKline,” examines the drug corporation’s long history of prioritizing profit over patients and finds a pattern of abusive practices to block competition and keep drug prices high.
Mary-Kay Murawski, of Chicago, lives with asthma and needs GSK’s Advair Diskus inhaler to breathe: “I have to take this drug two times daily, but I’m forced to use it every other day because it’s so expensive that I have to ration it.”
Azmia Magane, a Florida resident who lives with lupus, takes GSK’s blockbuster Benlysta: “It now costs me $1,700 a month for the Benlysta auto-injectors. Needless to say, I couldn’t afford that. I’m a social worker and bring home about $3,000 a month. The medication copay cost more than my rent, electricity, cell phone bill, and car payment combined.”
Patients For Affordable Drugs found GSK has a history of:
1. Filing frivolous lawsuits that delay the approval of generic drugs
2. Submitting sham citizen petitions, a tactic that delays generic competition
3. Cutting pay-for-delay deals
4. Touting false safety information
5. Pricing needed drugs out of reach of the patients who need them to survive
“The trail to GlaxoSmithKline’s sizeable profit margin is littered with suffering patients and unethical deeds,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs. “GSK rang in the new year by raising prices on three dozen medications, despite ongoing public outcry and political scrutiny over skyrocketing prices. We want GSK to disavow the actions we outline in this report and commit to being a profitable company by bringing to market new, innovative drugs instead of manipulating the system to drive profit margins.”
To read the full report, click here. To speak with a representative from Patients For Affordable Drugs about “The Truth About GlaxoSmithKline,” contact juliana@p4adnow.org.
Patients For Affordable Drugs is the only independent national patient organization focused exclusively on achieving policy changes to lower the price of prescription drugs.
