Truth is the Best Medicine...Get the facts on prescription drug costs...Abbott Laboratories gouge Medicare and taxpayers, consumer groups Report

The Medicare Rights Center, Public Citizen and the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices are announcing a joint campaign, “Truth is the Best Medicine,” to answer the pharmaceutical industry’s opposition to drug price negotiations under Medicare.

The groups are launching the campaign today with the release of a report “Norvir: Gouging Medicare on AIDS Drugs” describing how taxpayers and people with Medicare are being gouged by Abbott Laboratories on its AIDS/HIV drug Norvir. Abbott raised the price of this essential medicine by 400 percent and the Medicare program is paying the full price because the federal government is barred from negotiating a lower rate. 

This week, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act of 2007, which lifts the current prohibition on price negotiations and requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate with drug manufacturers to obtain lower prescription drug prices for people with Medicare covered by private plans under Medicare Part D.  The Senate is expected to take up the issue later this winter.

“It’s about time we negotiated drug prices under Medicare,” said Sharon Treat, executive director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices. “Nearly every state in the Nation has done so for years, saving billions and paying far less than the outrageous bill taxpayers are footing for Part D. State legislators across the country are calling on Congress to act swiftly and pass a negotiation requirement that really works. The time for symbolism and window dressing is over—the people are demanding real action and real negotiation based on the VA model.”

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industry’s lobbying group, has mounted an all-out attack against this effort to allow Medicare to secure lower drug prices for older adults and people with disabilities.

The Medicare Rights Center, Public Citizen, and the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices have banded together to fight PhRMA’s public relations blitz by providing the public and the press with the real facts about prescription drug prices.

“Democracy works best when truth wins out,” said Robert M. Hayes, president of the Medicare Rights Center. “The propaganda and lobbying machines of the drug industry have defeated the public interest for far too long. We intend to counter PhRMA’s deceptions with honesty and win for the American people, at long last, fair prices for prescription medicine.”

“The current legislation favoring the drug industry needs to be repealed to require the needs of Medicare recipients to take precedence. A recent Harris Poll finding that only 7 percent of people in this country think the drug industry is ‘generally honest and trustworthy’ says it all,” said Sidney M. Wolfe, M.D., director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group

In the coming days and weeks, the three groups will provide information and resources to reporters to counter drug industry myths and propaganda. The groups’ first fact sheet will provide a fact check on PhRMA’s claim that price negotiations would severely limit research and development of new medicines.

The National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices (NLARx) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of state legislators from across the country who advocate for lowering prescription drug costs and increasing access to affordable medicines. Legislators from the District of Columbia and all of the New England states plus Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Alaska, Arizona, and Hawaii are members of NLARx. 

The Medicare Rights Center (MRC) is the largest independent source of health care information and assistance in the United States for people with Medicare. Founded in 1989, MRC helps older adults and people with disabilities get good, affordable health care.

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts.