Category: Prescription Drug Pricing

What You Can Do Now - Drug Price Control Action Alert

7/29/2019

Drug Price Control - Action Alert
Quad Cities Area

Health Care Reform

Action Alert - Drug Price Control

The Senate Finance committee chaired by Sen. Grassley, approved by a vote of 19-9, a bi-partisan bill to limit prescription drug prices to the inflation index, but drug company lobbyists are mounting forces to oppose the bill. Many Republican senators seem ready to oppose it or amend it to death during floor debate.

Now is the time for us to act. If you live in Iowa, call Sen. Grassley 515-288-1145 and thank him for his leadership on this bill, and urge him to keep fighting for its passage without crippling amendments. Then contact Sen. Joni Ernst 515-284-4574 and urge her to ignore industry lobbyists and support passage of this bi-partisan bill that will help protect all Americans from huge prescription drug price increases.

If you live in Illinois, you can also thank Sen. Grassley for his leadership on this issue and contact Sen. Durbin 202-224-2152 and Sen. Duckworth 202-224-2854 and thank them for their continuing support on this and other health care reform issues.

Frank Samuelson

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Candidate Questions - Health Care Reform

4/22/2019

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Candidate Questions - Health Care Reform

Let’s get organized before the next presidential candidates come to town! It’s hard to know what questions to ask, but here is a list that we have created. If you have additional questions you think should be asked, please contact our Office Manager, Amber Bordolo and we will add to this list.

If you attend a candidate’s event, print off this list (see the download link below) and have it handy in case you have an opportunity to ask questions. Listen carefully to the answers on the topics below. Take notes if you can, and report back to us in the Blog Comments below.

These are also good questions that should be addressed to your State legislatures when they hold legislative sessions or campaign for re-election.

1. How will you protect the progress made thanks to the Affordable Care Act? (more people insured, children insured on parent’s programs until age 26, protection for pre-existing conditions, etc)

2. The Medicare program is vital to the health of millions of people. Will you protect Medicare for cuts planned by some members of Congress?

3. There are efforts underway to cut Medicaid funding and turn it into individual state grants. How will you fight to keep Medicaid strong and protect it from future cuts?

4. If you favor health care expansion, could you describe your vision? What would be the key points? (Single payer? Incremental stages of expansion?)

5. How will you provide healthcare to low-income people in states that did not expand Medicaid?

6. How will you push pharmaceutical companies to reduce Hight prescription drug prices?

a. Do you support letting Medicare negotiate with prescription drug companies? If so, why?

b. Would you support a bill to allow lower priced generic drugs to access the market more quickly?

c. What efforts will you take to require drug companies to explain large price increases?

d. Would you require drug companies to give a two-month notice when they plan to significantly increase prices?

e. Should Americans be allowed to buy lower priced drugs from other countries or should the U.S. government regulate drug prices?

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What You Can Do Now - Call Congress to Lower Prescription Drug Prices

3/25/2018

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What You Can Do Now - Call Your Members of Congress to Lower Prescription Drug Prices

The escalating costs of prescription drugs are a major driver in the increasing cost of health care, including insurance premiums. The pharmaceutical industry has developed effective methods for blocking or delaying the introduction of lower cost generic alternative medications which contribute to this problem.

The good news is that bills have been introduced in this congress to help alleviate the problem and encourage the timely approval and production of generic drugs. This “CREATES Act” has
bi-partisan support in both houses. Senate Bill 974 is co-sponsored by Senators Grassley, Durbin, Leahy and 17 others. HR 2212 has 15 co-sponsors so far.

Now is the time to contact Senators Grassley and Durbin and thank them for their support of this legislation and encourage them to work for its passage. It is also crucial to contact Senators Ernst and Duckworth and ask them to co-sponsor and support the Senate bill -- and to ask Representatives Bustos and Loebsack to co-sponsor and support the House bill.

Senators Grassley and Leahy have published an excellent description of the issue and the major provisions of the CREATES Act. You can read about the CREATES Act here.

Don’t delay. Contact your Senators and Representative today!

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Grassley, Leahy: It's time to empower generic drug makers to bring down prices

3/23/2018

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Grassley, Leahy: It’s time to empower generic drug makers to bring down prices

U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Patrick Leahy in STAT News

In Vermont, Iowa, and every other state across the country, people are fed up with the high cost of prescription drugs. Prices continue to skyrocket as companies making brand-name drugs restrict competition by refusing to share samples of their drugs with companies aiming to make generic versions or refusing to negotiate a shared safety protocol. This is an abuse of government regulations that are intended to protect patients and ensure drug safety.

These practices punish patients and worsen illnesses. Families, businesses, government programs, and other payers in the health care system must bear the added, unnecessary costs that accrue when a generic is shut out.

Lawmakers across the political spectrum, including President Trump, agree that Congress needs to act to rein in spiraling prescription drug prices. We can start by cracking down on abuses by companies making brand-name drugs that engage in tactics to artificially delay the development of generic alternatives. These stifle competition and keep prices artificially high. It is no wonder that hardworking Americans feel like the system is rigged against them by corporations that are seizing any opportunity unfairly restrict competition and reap monopoly profits long after patents expire.

Some — not all — companies that make brand-name drugs limit release of their products to prevent access to samples as a way to delay the development of generic versions. These tactics block more-affordable FDA-approved generics that save patients — and taxpayers — money at the pharmacy counter. When a generic manufacturer is not able to buy drug samples, it is impossible to do the careful testing that’s needed to ask the Food and Drug Administration to approve the medication. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has rightly called these tactics “unfair and exploitative” and “in direct conflict to our broader public health goals.”

Cancer patient David Mitchell testified before Congress about one company’s efforts to deny a generic company’s access to samples of Revlimid, a lifesaving cancer treatment. Access to samples of the drug has been at issue since 2009. If it were not for this ongoing abuse of the FDA’s safety programs, a generic alternative could be available to David and other patients as early as next year.

Because there is no generic alternative, the cost of Revlimid has remained artificially high and has actually risen fourteen times since this abuse began, from $9,853 in 2010 to its current price of $18,546 for a 28-count bottle. This is just one example out of more than 150 complaints that the FDA has received from generic manufacturers.

To end these anti-competitive tactics, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers — including Republican Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Ted Cruz (Texas), Rand Paul (Ky.), and Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), and Dick Durbin (Ill.), have joined us to introduce the Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act. This bill is supported by a broad and politically diverse coalition of 68 organizations representing hospitals, physicians, patients, employers, and unions. AARP, Families USA, Freedom Works, and Heritage, to name just a few, have endorsed this common-sense legislation. The public also agrees: Recent polls show that 84 percent of Americans support the CREATES Act.

Our bipartisan bill targets anti-competitive behavior that keeps prices artificially high, such as when companies withhold drug samples from generic manufacturers or refuse to negotiate a shared safety protocol. Both steps undermine the FDA approval process and block potential generic competitors from creating less-expensive alternatives.

Companies making brand-name drugs that stand in the way of the CREATES Act wrongly claim the legislation will lead to frivolous lawsuits. This is a red herring. Our bill is narrowly tailored and would only allow eligible product developers seeking to develop a medicine to sue, only after receiving FDA authorization. Trial lawyers will have no standing to sue under our plan.

Another baseless argument we have heard is that counterfeit product developers who do not intend to develop a drug will take advantage of the CREATES Act in order to seeks damages from a brand-name company. Wrong again. Under the CREATES Act, court challenges are only allowed based on continued delays after the FDA has certified the safety and the brand has refused to release samples. The significant costs to submit protocols to the FDA also discourages this behavior. These arguments do not hold up against the clear and limited remedies available under the CREATES Act.

Conservatives who support the CREATES Act appreciate that it lowers drug costs by quickly bringing parties to the negotiation table under the threat of litigation instead of a drawn-out regulatory action. The act is not a drastic measure, but allows the generic development process to proceed as intended by Congress under the Hatch-Waxman Act. Companies making brand-name pharmaceuticals need only to negotiate in good faith and provide the samples for testing on market terms to avoid a lawsuit.

This bill offers Congress an opportunity to take meaningful action to lower the cost of prescription drugs. It would save $3.8 billion in federal spending over the next 10 years and many billions more in costs to consumers.

The CREATES Act is a sensible, efficient, market-based way for generic drug manufacturers to address the delays in developing generics without jeopardizing patient safety or creating lengthy battles in the courts. There is no question that pharmaceutical companies should be compensated for their important work developing lifesaving treatments. But they should not be allowed to use predatory practices to cling to their patents and delay the development of generics at the expense of their customers.

Congress has a straightforward and fully bipartisan chance to actually do something to wind down the upward spiral of drug prices. Enough talk. It’s time for real action.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley represents the state of Iowa. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy represents the state of Vermont.

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Repair and Strengthen the ACA, Not Replace It!

6/16/2017

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Health Care Reform Forum

As the Congressional effort to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act moves to the Senate, we progressives need to tell our senators to dump the draconian House bill which will cause 24 million Americans to lose their health insurance, reduce Medicaid for the most vulnerable, and give tax benefits to the wealthy and corporations (among other things). Tell your senators now to repair and strengthen the ACA, not replace it.

When the House and Senate bills move to the conference committee, we will evaluate that result and again have the opportunity to contact our representatives and senators with our opinions.

In the meantime, our Health Care Reform Forum is beginning an effort to raise awareness and understanding about a major factor in the ever-rising cost of health care: the rapidly escalating prices of prescription drugs. We have begun to submit a series of letters to the editors of the Quad City Times and the Dispatch/Argus, and we plan to include them in this newsletter. We hope they will help you to better understand this multi-faceted issue and to share this information with others. We need to tell our legislators that the pharmaceutical industry has shown that it cannot resist putting profits over people; therefore Congress must act in the public interest. Here is the first letter in this series.

PRESCRIPTON DRUG PRICING

One factor in the rising cost of health care, and therefore of health insurance premiums and copays, is the rapid escalation of prescription drug prices. Some medications have seen price increases of several hundred per cent over a few months or years. Many new drugs are priced much higher than the costs of development, testing, and bringing them to market. Protected by patents, and promoted by advertising, drug companies charge whatever the market will bear. The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most profitable in our economy.

But these escalating prices are paid for by the patients who need these treatments and by the insurance companies and government agencies that pay the bills. President Trump raised this issue in a meeting with pharmaceutical CEOs. Other politicians, Congressional committees and health care experts have also raised the alarm. Since drug companies can’t resist using all the “tricks of the trade” to raise prices and profits, only our government can bring some rationality and fairness into the system. But so far it’s all talk and no action.

One simple first step toward addressing this problem would be for Congress to change the law that forbids Medicare from negotiating prices with the drug companies. Private insurance companies, the Veterans’ Administration, and most governments around the world negotiate drug prices. Medicare should also. Tell your representatives and senators to act now to let fairness, competition, and market forces, rather than monopolistic practices, set the prices of our prescription drugs.

Frank Samuelson
cfsam22@gmail.com

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Skyrocketing Prescription Drug Prices

6/16/2017

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Heath Care Reform Forum

Our government has a long history of regulating prescription drugs for safety and effectiveness. We need to tell our representatives that it's time to address drug pricing. Here's why:

Wonder why health care costs in the USA are almost twice as much as they are in other developed countries? Follow the money from the pockets of the paying patients to the coffers of Big Pharma. One major reason for the higher cost of health care and insurance premiums is skyrocketing prescription drug prices.

Among the most profitable industries in the U.S. economy, pharmaceutical companies benefit from legal protections and from monopolistic and marketing practices that enable them to set prices without relation to the costs of production or a competitive marketplace.

Recently one company bought the rights to the drug Daraprim and overnight hiked the price 5000%, from $13.50 to $750. Another bought the right to sell the life-saving drug, Epinephrine, in a two pack dispenser and raised the price 650% from $94 to $608. These two examples reflect an industry wide trend that has caused loud complaints from the public and congressional committees.

In 1940, Congress created the Food and Drug Administration in response to a lethal mistake by a drug company that caused 100 people to die. The FDA now protects the public by assuring that all drugs are proven “safe and effective” before they can be marketed.

Prohibitively high prices of life-saving medications are deadly to the public. Let's tell our congressmen/women and senators to protect us by regulating the costs of pharmaceuticals so they will be available and affordable for all of us.

Clara Caldwell
Rock Island

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What You Can Do Now - Drug Price Control Action Alert

Drug Price Control - Action Alert
Quad Cities Area

Candidate Questions - Health Care Reform

Candidate Questions - Health Care Reform

What You Can Do Now - Call Congress to Lower Prescription Drug Prices

What You Can Do Now - Call Your Members of Congress to Lower Prescription Drug Prices

Grassley, Leahy: It's time to empower generic drug makers to bring down prices

Grassley, Leahy: It’s time to empower generic drug makers to bring down prices

Repair and Strengthen the ACA, Not Replace It!

Health Care Reform Forum

Skyrocketing Prescription Drug Prices

Heath Care Reform Forum

Archives

Categories

What You Can Do Now - Drug Price Control Action Alert

Drug Price Control - Action AlertQuad Cities Area

Candidate Questions - Health Care Reform

Candidate Questions - Health Care Reform

What You Can Do Now - Call Congress to Lower Prescription Drug Prices

What You Can Do Now - Call Your Members of Congress to Lower Prescription Drug Prices

Grassley, Leahy: It's time to empower generic drug makers to bring down prices

Grassley, Leahy: It’s time to empower generic drug makers to bring down prices

Repair and Strengthen the ACA, Not Replace It!

Health Care Reform Forum

Skyrocketing Prescription Drug Prices

Heath Care Reform Forum

Archives

Categories

Drug Price Control - Action Alert
Quad Cities Area