The House’s passage of the Build Back Better Act is a significant first step toward breaking up Pharma’s monopoly power over prices and making medicines more affordable for millions.
It is absolutely ridiculous that at the same time Big Pharma is spending literally hundreds of millions of dollars to try and stop lawmakers from lowering prescription drug prices for families, they’re also raising prices of the most expensive drugs in the U.S. to inflate profits.
Reports that Democrats in Congress have stepped back from the legislative and political abyss by deciding to include prescription drug reform in the Build Back Better plan is welcome news. Not only has poll after poll shown that this is a top concern for voters, but Democrats have been campaigning and winning on this issue for years.
While some parts of the Build Back Better framework may be historic, without meaningful prescription drug reform that enables the federal government to negotiate lower prices we cannot truly build back better as a nation.
Congress is debating legislation right now that would lower drug prices, cap out-of-pocket costs and save American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.
Big Pharma is fighting this reform for one reason and one reason only: to protect their sky-high profits and lavish CEO pay. Their army of lobbyists may have bought off enough politicians to win this vote, but they won’t have the final say.
Today President Biden made it abundantly clear that lowering prescription drug prices is essential for our country to ‘Build Back Better.’ As Congress debates the reconciliation bill, we urge members to follow through on their promises with this once-in-a-generation opportunity to make prescription drugs more affordable and show they are on the side of patients.
