Civil Society Letter to Drug Corporations and Industry Groups Challenging Medicare Drug Price Negotiations: Drop Your Lawsuits and Lower Your Prices
civil-society-letter-to-executives-challenging-medicare-drug-price-negotiation
On the anniversary of President Biden signing the Inflation Reduction Act into law, Public Citizen and more than 70 organizations wrote to the executives of Merck & Co., Bristol Myers Squibb Company, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Astellas Pharma US, PhRMA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other chambers of commerce, calling on them to drop their lawsuits seeking to overturn the Medicare drug price negotiation law. See the full letter and signatories below:
August 16, 2023
Dear Executives of Merck & Co., Bristol Myers Squibb Company, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Astellas Pharma US, PhRMA, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other chambers of commerce,
The lawsuits filed by your corporations and associations to overturn the Medicare drug price negotiation law signed by President Biden one year ago today are unconscionable. Our organizations demand that you withdraw your lawsuits and instead negotiate lower drug prices.
Despite being the largest purchaser of prescription drugs in the world, drug corporations’ prices under Medicare Part D are significantly higher than those paid in other countries. Drug corporations routinely charge patients in the United States twice or more of what they charge patients in other large, wealthy countries – even in cases where U.S. taxpayers supported the drug’s development. For top-selling drugs worldwide, drug corporations consistently make more money from U.S. sales than the rest of the world combined. Drug corporations’ prices for Medicare Part D even outstrip those paid by other government health programs, like Medicaid and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Aging Americans and people with disabilities and chronic health conditions bear the brunt of these excessive prices. No one should have to go into debt, go without life-saving medicines or choose between prescriptions and other basic needs like groceries and rent. Yet millions across this nation do.
The Inflation Reduction Act established into law enormously popular, commonsense reforms to lower prices and expand access to medicines for millions of Medicare beneficiaries, including empowering Medicare to negotiate lower prices directly with prescription drug corporations. These reforms are projected to save patients and consumers tens of billions of dollars and expand access while ensuring innovation and drug corporations’ ability to achieve enormous financial success.
We stand with patients across the country whose lives and well-being depend on access to affordable prescription drugs. We will not relinquish these commonsense reforms while high drug prices remain a matter of life and death for so many Americans. We call on you to stop suing Medicare and negotiate lower prices now.
Sincerely,
ACA Consumer Advocacy
ACT UP New York
AIDS Foundation Chicago
AlaskansTakeAStand/ StandUpAlaska
American Economic Liberties Project
Arkansas Community Organizations
Be a Hero
Beta Cell Action
Big Sky 55+
California Alliance for Retired Americans
Center for Independence of the Diabled, NY (CIDNY)
Center for Medicare Advocacy
Center for Popular Democracy
Citizen Action/Illinois
Coalition on Human Needs
Communities United
Consumer Action
Cross-union Retirees Organizing Committee (CROC)
Doctors for America
Economic Opportunity Institute
EPIC- Ensuring Parole for Incarcerated Citizens
Families USA
Fdn for Integrative AIDS Research (FIAR)
Feed Your Hood Organization
Georgians for a Healthy Future
Health Care for America Now (HCAN) Education Fund
Health Care Voices
Health Foundation for Western and Central New York
Institute for a Progressive Nevada
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)
Jim Hightower & Associates
Labor Campaign for Single Payer
Lampasas Democrats
Maryknoll Sisters
Metro New York Health Care for All
MomsRising
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare
New Jersey Citizen Action
New York Progressive Action Network
New York State Alliance for Retired Americans
New York StateWide Senior Action Council
Our Revolution
Patients For Affordable Drugs
People’s Action
Physicians for a National Health Program
Physicians for a National Health Program – NY Metro Chapter
Progressive Democrats of America
Protect Our Care
Public Citizen
Public Interest Patent Law Institute
Salud y Farmacos
Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investments
Shriver Center on Poverty Law
Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth
Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi
Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
Social Security Works
South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center
SPACEs In Action
T1International, USA
TAG-Texans Against Gerrymandering
Tennessee Health Care Campaign
Texas Bluebonnet PAC
Texas Democratic Women of Galveston County
Texas Organizing Project
Texas Progressive Caucus
Two Faces of MS
United Vision for Idaho
Unity Fellowship of Christ Church-NYC
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)
Upper West Side Action Group
VOCAL-NY