BY GUEST CONTRIBUTORS

Americans are paying almost four times what people in other nations pay for the same brand-name drugs. Pharmaceutical corporations have rigged the system to have monopoly pricing power by spending billions to get the laws and regulations that benefit them. Meanwhile, millions of New Jerseyans have chronic health conditions that require prescription drugs for treatment and management. And every day, far too many New Jersey residents have to make the impossible choice between paying their bills or refilling their prescriptions.

Thankfully, Congress has the best opportunity in well over a decade to lower drug prices by including provisions to allow effective Medicare negotiation in the Build Back Better plan. Patients like us are counting on our elected officials to fulfill their promises to the American people to lower drug prices.

In 2020, 20 percent of New Jersey adults reported skipping doses of medication or not filling prescriptions because of high prices, and polling has shown that nearly half of New Jersey residents are worried about prescription drug prices.

As patients whose health and well-being depends on expensive prescription medications, we have experienced firsthand the stress, anxiety, and fear of dealing with high drug prices.

I, Lisa Ann, was prescribed Vyvanse, which made an incredible difference in my quality of life. Because of it, I was able to work on my small business, engage in advocacy, and focus on improving my health. Without treatment, I am unable to function normally due to my debilitating symptoms. Unfortunately, this relief comes with a steep price tag of over $1,000 a month. Because of the high price, I was forced to make the difficult decision to stop taking the drug completely. Now I take a less expensive medication that doesn’t work as well and I can feel and see a significant difference in my quality of life.

Big Pharma’s price hikes – over 1,000 price hikes in 2020 alone – on top of already too high prices, clearly have dire consequences. Research found that if the prices of medications continue to rise at this rate, price-driven non-adherence to prescribed medications will be a leading cause of death in the United States, resulting in over 1.1 million patient deaths over the next decade.

Our current drug pricing system is unsustainable, and patients like us look to our elected officials like Senator Bob Menendez to take meaningful action to lower drug prices by supporting the inclusion of comprehensive Medicare negotiation in the Build Back Better plan.

This policy would allow Medicare to negotiate prices directly with drugmakers, and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has concluded this will effectively lower drug prices for patients. And while Big Pharma has tried to scare people into believing that Medicare negotiation would decrease access to medications, this same CBO analysis made clear that lower prices would increase patient’s adherence to taking their medications and improve people’s health. This is because the biggest barrier to access is high drug prices.

There have also been millions spent on TV ads from pharmaceutical companies claiming that lower drug prices for patients would halt innovation in medicine, hoping to scare patients and elected officials into opposing Medicare negotiation. But the United States is the largest prescription drug market in the world, and the pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable industry on the planet. Big Pharma’s profit margins should not be prioritized over the health and well-being of millions of American patients, especially when pharmaceutical companies spend more on advertising and lobbying to keep their monopolistic control over drug prices than they spend on research and development.

I, David, have an incurable cancer and am currently kept alive by four drugs with a combined price of more than $900,000 per year — just one of these drugs costs me more than $15,000 per year out of pocket. My cancer is always changing and will eventually outsmart the drugs I am on, so I need innovative new drugs to continue to come to market in order to stay alive. I know the importance of both innovation and affordability, and I know that Medicare negotiation will restore balance to our system so we get the innovation we need at prices we can afford.

Patients like us, across the country and right here in New Jersey, are counting on Senator Menendez to support including Medicare negotiation in the Build Back Better plan. Those provisions will ensure the benefits reach the people who need them at lower prices, put a stop to drug company price gouging by capping year-over-year price increases at the rate of inflation, and reduce an annual out-of-pocket maximum for Medicare beneficiaries.

Now is the time to get this done. Otherwise, the health of millions of people will suffer while pharmaceutical companies’ profits continue to soar.

Lisa Ann Trainor is a patient advocate in Princeton, New Jersey. David Mitchell is a cancer patient and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now.