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Tell Your State Legislators to Vote No on HF 17 / SF 168
Protect Innovation and Jobs
Hold Middlemen Accountable
Protect Patient Access in Minnesota
Tell Your State Legislators to Vote No on HF 17 / SF 168
Legislators in Minnesota are considering bills (HF 17 and SF 168) that would create a so-called “prescription drug affordability board.” While the name might sound good, what it does is allow government bureaucrats to arbitrarily decide the value of the medicines Minnesotans need.
Under a prescription drug affordability board, the state would evaluate whether certain medicines and treatments are “worth” paying for, meaning the state’s bureaucracy could come between people and the treatments their doctors prescribe. This spells disaster for people by potentially creating barriers to getting life-saving medicines.
If Minnesota is serious about making medicines more affordable, then it needs to avoid policies that could limit patients' access to medicines while failing to stop insurance companies and their middlemen from gaming the system. These multibillion-dollar health insurance companies and the middlemen they work with – called pharmacy benefit managers – already make patients pay more for medicines than they do. These bills have no guarantee that middlemen would treat patients any differently at the pharmacy counter. It should be no surprise they support a proposal that could repeat the same scheme for higher profits for them.
The government board also threatens the crucial R&D that’s necessary to continue fighting devastating diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS and many others. A recently enacted federal law with similar policies is already having an impact on this important medical innovation. A recent survey of biopharmaceutical companies found that 82% or more of companies with pipeline projects in cardiovascular, mental health, neurology, infectious disease, cancers and rare diseases expect “substantial impacts” on R&D decisions in these areas.
Despite what proponents say, it’s clear that this proposal risks increased barriers to medicines, threatens future treatments and cures and could line the pockets of those who would benefit most – insurance companies and the pharmacy benefit managers they work with.
Tell your lawmakers to stop threatening access to medicine and failing Minnesotans who need real solutions.
Protect Innovation and Jobs
Tell Congress: The Biden Administration Should Protect American Innovation and Jobs
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is considering waiving requirements to protect American intellectual property (IP) on COVID-19 treatments abroad, following a harmful and unnecessary decision in June to do the same for COVID-19 vaccines – referred to as the TRIPS waiver. This means that other countries, such as China and India, would be permitted to allow local companies to use the IP of American companies to make copycat COVID-19 treatments abroad. The Biden Administration can stop the WTO from allowing this to happen.
The Biden Administration should ensure that the WTO does not further undermine medical innovation by expanding the TRIPS waiver to treatments. Here’s why:
There is no supply shortage for COVID-19 treatments, and therefore no need to increase production abroad. Supply exceeds demand for COVID-19 treatments for all variants, disease severity and patient settings.
Global collaboration has succeeded in fighting COVID-19, with voluntary agreements providing access to treatments to more than 125 low- and middle-income countries.
Expansion of the TRIPS waiver would harm global health and America’s global competitiveness, economic and job security, and medical innovation leadership.
The Biden Administration must reject expansion of the TRIPS waiver to protect American jobs and instead focus on last-mile distribution and administration challenges around the world to make a real impact for people trying to access treatment for COVID-19.
Hold Middlemen Accountable
Tell Congress to Hold Middlemen Like Insurers and PBMs Accountable
Too many Americans struggle to afford the medicines and health care they need. And the problem has gotten worse in recent years as insurers increasingly use practices that shift costs to patients. But the drug pricing debate in Washington continues to ignore the broader pharmaceutical supply chain, including middlemen like insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
Unfortunately, Congress just passed a law that doesn't stop abusive insurance and PBM practices that are the real drivers of health care costs. Take insulin, for example. Last year, manufacturers provided deep discounts to insurers and PBMs that lowered the cost of the most commonly used insulins by 84% on average. These middlemen – not patients – have been the primary beneficiaries of these deep discounts. Patients deserve better.
Congress could meaningfully address patient access and affordability concerns if they pursued legislation that:
• Included the kind of accountability and transparency of PBMs that patients and employers need.
• Addressed a broken insurance system that is shifting more of the costs of medicines onto vulnerable patients.
• Took steps to ensure patients share in the deep discounts that PBMs and health plans receive.
Giving the federal government unprecedented, sweeping authority to set prices for our medicines was not the solution.
Congress must work on real solutions to make sure patients can afford their medicines at the pharmacy counter. That starts with holding insurers and middlemen accountable.