December 4, 2019 Press Releases

New Patient Map Underscores How Drug Pricing Crisis Hurts Everyday Americans

WASHINGTON, DC — Patients across America are speaking out against ever-increasing prescription drug prices, sharing more than 20,000 stories with Patients For Affordable Drugs to date. The stories detail how patients continue to skip doses, cut pills in half, and forgo food to pay for rising drug prices. In 2019 alone, Patients For Affordable Drugs collected more than 6,500 patient stories.

“Speaking out against an injustice like drug pricing in America is the vital first step in fixing our broken system,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs. “Patients will not be victimized by runaway prescription drug prices and are mobilizing in support of reforms, providing a vital counterbalance to the outsize influence of the pharmaceutical industry.”

To view the Map, click here.

 

PATIENT PERSPECTIVES

Sallie, Tennessee: “My son came down with three very rare cancers. We could not afford the medications. He was put in the hospital in April 2018 and died on July 21, 2018.”

Lillian, Georgia: “I have started breaking my pills in half so my prescription will last longer.”

Guy, Oklahoma: “My wife is fighting cancer. Her medicine is $300 a month. If she cannot get it she stays in pain, and we cannot afford that much.”

Willowdean, Alabama: “Sometimes I have to skip my meds, because I can’t afford them and pay bills, and also buy food.”

Jean, Georgia: “I have been taking cyclosporine for 27 years now because of a liver transplant and those meds have never cost me as much as they do now. Paying for my medications has pushed me into debt.”

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Patients For Affordable Drugs is the only independent national patient organization focused exclusively on achieving policy changes to lower the price of prescription drugs.