Yahoo News – 7/13/20
“There’s been little action in Congress on the one thing that actually could get things back to normal: ensuring an affordable COVID-19 vaccine that could curtail the spread of the disease. The first step is obviously the investment we’re already seeing to create the vaccine, but the second step is just as important: regulation and accountability to ensure that medicines we’re paying to develop are accessible to all.” — Margarida Jorge, Marketwatch
Des Moines Register – 7/6/20
LTE by Logun Buckley, Alliance for Retired Americans, Waterloo
WBUR – 6/30/20
“One campaign fighting for global access and a free vaccine, Free the Vaccine, represents 29 countries and two organizations, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines and the Center for Artistic Activism. Another is Lower Drug Prices Now, a U.S. coalition of nearly 60 social justice organizations.”
Des Moines Register – 6/29/20
LTE by Helene Golden, Cedar Rapids
Front Page Live – 6/26/20
The COVID pandemic reminds us that we are all human, we can all get sick, and sometimes we all need prescription medications to feel better and take care of our families.
But for Big Pharma and all their friends in the Trump Administration, today’s crisis is just another chance to price gouge patients trying to stay healthy.
At Lower Drug Prices Now, we have uncovered the five big drug corporations addicted to price gouging and poised to profit off future COVID vaccines. While the Trump Administration is funneling them billions for research through secret contracts and special tax breaks, there is a growing army of people demanding that we hold Big Pharma accountable for inflating their profits at the expense of our health.
Market Watch – 6/24/20
Congress must act now to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines and treatments are affordable
Americans need to have full confidence that decision-makers at the highest levels of government are acting in the interest of their health and well-being.
Since the start of the race for a COVID-19 vaccine, the U.S. government has funneled more than $10 billion in taxpayer dollars to pharmaceutical companies through contracts for the expedited innovation of a vaccine. So far, the government’s investment has been made with no strings attached, not even a guarantee that any vaccines and treatments will be affordable to the people who need them.
Bloomberg Law – 6/18/20
Margarida Jorge, a campaign director for the coalition Lower Drug Prices Now, is skeptical the industry will set affordable prices. “We couldn’t trust them on EpiPens,” she says. “Why on Earth would we think that we could trust the prescription drug industry to create a vaccine that they would then price at a fair rate.” Almost 9 in 10 U.S. adults say they’re concerned the drug industry will leverage the pandemic to raise prices, shows a poll from Gallup and West Health released on June 18.
