Common Dreams – 5/28/20
“Trump has put a pharmaceutical executive in charge of handing out the government contracts for coronavirus vaccine development. How could this possibly go wrong?”
Minneapolis Star Tribune – 5/21/20
“Margarida Jorge, the campaign director of the pressure group, Lower Drug Prices Now, challenged the decision of U.S. authorities to hand over money for the vaccine development. Jorge said the U.S. Congress should insist that any drugs developed with taxpayer investments be provided at no additional cost.
“Beating COVID depends on ensuring these medicines will be affordable,” Jorge said in a statement. “Instead, the Trump Administration continues to give drug corporations monopoly control over prices to profiteer off the pandemic.”
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Washington – Today, the Lower Drug Prices Now coalition hosted a tele-town hall featuring Wisconsin Representative Gwen Moore, former Representative Donna Edwards, Stephanie Bloomingdale, President of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, and Gary Mitchell, President of the Wisconsin Alliance of Retired Americans to demand affordable COVID drugs and accountability for drug corporations that are profiteering off of the coronavirus pandemic.
Politico – 5/19/20
“Skeptics swiftly questioned bestowing a massive BARDA grant on a startup run by Edwards.
“They’re gearing up to give the largest award in history to a corporate executive who quintupled the price of naloxone in the middle of the opioid epidemic,” said Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now. “Yet again, the administration is handing over taxpayer dollars away to a drug corporation with no strings attached and no guarantee that we’ll get affordable access to the medicines developed with our money.”
Stat News – 5/19/20
“But one consumer advocate, Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, slammed the decision.
“This White House seems to have an open spigot of taxpayer dollars going to drug corporations that profiteer off pandemics. They’re gearing up to give the largest award in history to a corporate executive who quintupled the price of (an overdose antidote) in the middle of the opioid epidemic,” she said. “Yet again, the administration is handing over taxpayer dollars to a drug corporation with no strings attached and no guarantee that we’ll get affordable access to the medicines developed with our money.”
Des Moines Register – 5/11/20
LTE by Dr. Selden Spencer, Ames
