Lower Drug Prices Now joins our partners, allies and people all over the world as we grieve and mobilize over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arberty, and so many more of our sisters, brothers and trans family members who are casualties of racism and white supremacy.
Washington, D.C. – Today, Lower Drug Prices Now joined nonpartisan ethics watchdog groups American Oversight and Accountable.US in filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for information on the pricing, cost and affordability of COVID-19 vaccines or treatment created by AstraZeneca, Merck and Pfizer.
“At the same time we’re handing billions in taxpayer dollars over to Big Pharma companies for COVID treatments and vaccines, no strings attached, they’re continuing with the same business-as-usual approach of gouging patients. How many times do the same companies have to prove that they can’t be trusted before we lawmakers take action to end Pharma companies’ monopoly control to charge patients any price they want?”
“For decades, these drug corporations have held the healthcare of billions of people hostage, lining their pockets to become the most profitable industry in the nation,” said Margarida Jorge, national campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now. “Apparently Dr. Fauci, a senior public health official responsible for our nation’s COVID response, believes that’s okay. Big Pharma should not be the ones deciding the cost of a vaccine, full stop.”
“Mergers and consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry is bad news for patients, and could prove even more harmful as demand for affordable COVID treatments and vaccines is bound to increase. Drug corporations already have monopoly control to charge patients inflated prices for prescription drugs in the past few years. Corporations like AstraZeneca and Gilead have historically used their monopoly power to price-gouge patents for necessary medicines, charging sometimes tens of thousands of dollars for a single treatment. “
WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Donald Trump’s vaccine czar – who has extensive ties to the pharmaceutical industry – should be subject to conflict of interest and disclosure rules, Public Citizen and Lower Drug Prices Now said in a complaint filed today.
“At this point, we have to assume that conflicts of interest are a prerequisite to working in the Trump administration,” said Margarida Jorge, national campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now. “The Vice President’s Chief of Staff holds stock in the very prescription drug corporations receiving taxpayer funding for coronavirus treatments.”
