Statement from Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, on the Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff victories: 

Voters in Georgia turned out in record numbers yesterday in two races where health care and democracy were central themes. Yesterday, voters sent a loud and clear message: we need elected leaders that will ensure everyone has access to the healthcare and affordable medicines we need, especially during a pandemic that on that same day killed a record number of people.

Drug corporations have already hiked prices in the first week of this year, even though the pandemic is every day forcing more Americans to choose between paying for rent or buying the medicines they need. It doesn’t have to be this way. Georgia voters have made possible new opportunities for the Biden Administration to work with the new Democratic majority in both houses of Congress to push for long overdue reforms that reduce Big Pharma’s monopoly control over drug prices, stop their price-gouging and help end the COVID crisis.

Georgia voters made history this week. Now it’s time for President-elect Joe Biden and Congress to do the same: the new administration must work with Congress to pass legislation that holds drug corporations accountable, ends their monopoly control over prices, and ensures that everyone can get affordable medicines whether they are sick with COVID or need prescriptions to stay healthy.