| WASHINGTON, D.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs released an extensive fact check today that takes on Big Pharma’s lies in recent ads, which total more than $18 million this year, attacking drug pricing reforms that include allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. The fact check breaks down six false claims in pharma-funded ads, including misleading claims about the implications of repealing the non-interference clause and direct Medicare negotiation.
“Big Pharma will stop at nothing to maintain its unfettered pricing power at the expense of patients who are struggling to afford their prescription drugs,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs. “The industry is doing what it has done for decades — using front groups to push lies and misleading claims to scare patients and lawmakers from passing any drug pricing reform into law. This time, patients and elected officials aren’t buying the lies, and we are not going to let them get away with it.”
The fact check examines six claims that the industry makes in its ads, which are currently being run by PhRMA itself, Medicare Today, the Pharmaceutical Industry Labor-Management Association, the American Conservative Union, and other industry-allied groups.
The fact check analyzes the following topics as they relate to allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices:
- The non-interference clause
- Medicare Part D
- Access to drugs
- Research and development
- Comparing pricing mechanisms to other countries
- Jobs and the biomedical sector
Read the full fact check here.
“Big Pharma is spending tens of millions of dollars to make sure Americans keep paying almost four times what people in other wealthy nations pay for the same brand-name drugs,” Mitchell continued. “High prices in this country block access to drugs we need and hurt patient health. 9 out of 10 Americans support reforms that allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for the people of this country — we won’t be fooled by Big Pharma’s big lies.”
Patients For Affordable Drugs is the only independent national patient organization focused exclusively on policy changes to lower prescription drug prices. It does not accept funding from any organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.
|
