Inside Health Policy – 6/9/20
The federal government this month will run out of the only drug shown to help COVID-19 patients recover, and it is not clear whether Gilead will continue to provide new supplies of remdesivir to HHS for free. HHS will send out its last batch of remdesivir to states on June 29, an HHS official told Inside Health Policy, though it will reserve less than 10% of its supply in case “hotspots emerge in the coming weeks.”
Las Vegas Sun – 6/8/20
“This move is another political stunt from a president worried about his poll numbers with seniors as his broken campaign promises keep stacking up,” said Margarida Jorge, national campaign director for the advocacy group Lower Drug Prices Now.
“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. “
LA Times – 6/4/20
“This move is another political stunt from a president worried about his poll numbers with seniors as his broken campaign promises keep stacking up,” said Margarida Jorge, national campaign director for the advocacy group Lower Drug Prices Now.
“Instead of tweaks and one-off proposals for political gain, we need to overhaul the system that gives drug corporations monopoly control over prices, and instead put in place fair rules that ensure access and affordability for everyone,” she said.
Newsweek – 6/2/20
OPED by Cong. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Cong. Francis Rooney (R-FL)
Over the past decade, almost every new medication brought to market was paid for by a hefty investment from taxpayer dollars. Each of these drugs was developed in the interest of a greater public good: to alleviate pain, improve health and save lives. However, accountability for public funding has not prevented pharmaceutical corporations from hiking up prices on new and existing drugs for patients, increasing the cost of prescription drugs up to 10 percent every year.
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.”
