| WASHINGTON, D.C. — The bipartisan advocacy organization Patients For Affordable Drugs, and its sister organization Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, welcomes Sheila McLean as its executive director to lead the charge in the fight to lower drug prices. Over more than three decades, McLean has driven change in public health, health care, social impact, and sustainability through advocacy. She arrives as high drug prices are a top concern for a majority of Americans and an issue the new administration and Congress have vowed to address.
“In the last four years, Patients For Affordable Drugs has brought tens of thousands of patients to the fight for lower drug prices,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of both Patients For Affordable Drugs and Patients For Affordable Drugs Now.
“We are excited to have Sheila McLean bring her tremendous skills and experience to our work. She is more than a highly effective public affairs leader — Sheila is also a patient reliant on incredibly costly biologic drugs to manage her own chronic condition. She is married to a melanoma survivor, and a mom to an adult son with disabilities and a daughter who is a sarcoma survivor. She understands quite personally the need to reform our drug pricing system.
“Sheila has been a fierce advocate since her days as an award-winning Detroit News reporter exposing patient harm in Michigan’s unlicensed group homes and other settings, which led her to serve as Family Advocate in former Michigan Gov. John Engler’s administration.
“With Sheila’s leadership, a growing army of patient advocates, and a new administration and Congress in place, we are poised to help win the fight to lower prescription drug prices.”
McLean succeeds Ben Wakana, who has been named to President Biden’s COVID-19 response team as Deputy Director of Strategic Communications and Engagement.
Most recently, McLean served as Mid-Atlantic President of Markstein, an integrated communications agency with offices in Washington, D.C., and Birmingham, Ala. She previously spent 17 years in various leadership roles at MSL, a global communications firm.
Patients For Affordable Drugs is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. It is the only independent national patient organization focused exclusively on policy changes to lower prescription drug prices. Patients For Affordable Drugs Now is a not-for-profit 501(c)(4) organization focused on advancing policies to lower drug prices. Both are independent and bipartisan and neither accepts funding from any organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.
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