Students from Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), alongside veteran AIDS activists from ACT UP Philadelphia and ACT UP New York, were joined by representatives from the Other 98%, John F. O’Donnell, a comedian and actor from RT-America’s satirical news program “Redacted Today” and additional Philadelphia community activist groups to urge the next president to reign in out-of-control drug prices in the U.S. and worldwide, and end global disease epidemics.
Students from Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM), alongside veteran AIDS activists from ACT UP Philadelphia and ACT UP New York, were joined by representatives from the Other 98%, John F. O’Donnell, a comedian and actor from RT-America’s satirical news program “Redacted Today” and additional Philadelphia community activist groups to urge the next president to reign in out-of-control drug prices in the U.S. and worldwide, and end global disease epidemics.
[Philadelphia] Activists angry about drug company price-gouging will face off against a team of pharmaceutical corporate CEOs and “Pharma Bro,” played by comedian John F. O’Donnell, in a life-or-death tug-of-war action outside Hillary Clinton’s Philadelphia campaign headquarters. They are demanding that the candidates for president commit to end the global AIDS pandemic, and to ensure that medicines invented with U.S. taxpayer funds are available off-patent in low- and middle-income countries. The activists note that the Trump Campaign has been entirely silent, while the Clinton Campaign has backed away from pledges made on the campaign trail.
About half of the new medicines sold in America are invented with taxpayers’ money, in the form of grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to universities. These life-saving drugs, funded by the public, are then licensed to private pharmaceutical corporations, who sell them back to the public at exorbitant prices that often put treatment out of reach. “There is no law requiring Americans to pay the world’s highest prices--especially for drugs we paid to invent in the first place,” said UAEM’s Merith Basey. “The next president of the United States must ensure that drugs invented with U.S. taxpayer funds are available off-patent in low and middle income countries, and prevent pharmaceutical corporations from charging Americans higher prices than any other country for medicines that were often invented with U.S. taxpayer resources,” she said.
Erica Goldberg from ACT UP Philadelphia stated, “We don’t have to be gouged by the drug corporations.By instructing the NIH to include affordability and access provisions in their grants, the next president can make our drugs affordable and available worldwide with the stroke of a pen.”
Hillary Clinton, in her 2008 campaign, pledged to “ensure that drugs developed with taxpayer resources are made available off-patent in developing countries.” She has failed to renew this pledge for 2016. The Trump Campaign has been entirely silent. Both candidates have received requests from patient groups, students and other advocates.
“Pharmaceutical companies have spent more than any other industry to buy influence on both sides of the aisle. Candidates for president must reject these payoffs, and stand with patients who need these medicines to live,” said Other 98%’s Samantha Corbin. “In the face of rampant price gouging, the 2016 nominees must establish pro-patient, pro-public agendas.”
“On the campaign trail to New Hampshire, candidates made powerful pledges that would massively slow the AIDS pandemic by 2020,” said ACT UP’s Jose DeMarco. “Just because the primary is over doesn’t mean candidates can back away from the promises made to American voters. We are in a tug of war with the drug corporations, and we need the candidates to make it clear to voters whose side they’re on."
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