Alex Azar to Face Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday; Public Citizen Experts Available for Comment
Jan. 8, 2018
Alex Azar to Face Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday; Public Citizen Experts Available for Comment
Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program Will Live-Tweet Event
WHAT: Public Citizen’s experts are available to comment on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday to consider the nomination of Alex Azar for secretary of Health and Human Services. Public Citizen and 60 other organizations last week sent a letter urging senators not to confirm Azar, who previously served as president of the pharmaceutical firm Lilly USA, the largest affiliate of Eli Lilly and Company.
Azar likely will receive questions about prescription medicine affordability, insulin price spiking that occurred under his tenure at Eli Lilly, the Affordable Care Act, access to no-cost-share contraception and other issues highlighted in the letter.
At a time when the U.S. is facing a nationwide crisis of access to affordable medicines, the top official in charge of health care should not be a former pharmaceutical company executive with a history of making lifesaving medicines unaffordable, Public Citizen maintains.
Follow @PCMedsAccess on Twitter for live updates during the hearing.
WHO: Peter Maybarduk, director, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program
Steve Knievel, advocate, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program
Justin Mendoza, organizer, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program
WHEN: 10 a.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 9
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