| WASHINGTON, DC — With the addition of two new co-sponsors today, more than one-third of the US Senate now officially supports bipartisan legislation to stop the tactics used by Big Pharma CEO Bob Hugin to block cheaper generics and double the price of a key cancer drug. Senators Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) brought the number of cosponsors to 31 and three additional Senators voted to pass the bill out of committee for a total on the record in support standing at 34.
Big Pharma CEO Bob Hugin spent millions paying lobbyists to stop Congress from passing the CREATES Act. It would crackdown on his unethical business practices, which the FDA called “unfair and exploitive.”
“Big Pharma CEO Bob Hugin abused patients by blocking cheaper generics of his cancer drugs—forcing people into debt while he raked in more than $100 million for himself,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient who took the drug, and founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Action. “The United States Congress is advancing legislation directly aimed at stopping the unethical and unscrupulous tactics Hugin pioneered. New Jersey voters need to know who this man really is. He is not on the side of patients.”
The CREATES Act would stop drug companies from blocking cheaper generic prescription drugs from entering the market by refusing to provide samples to generic manufacturers for testing. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the CREATES Act will save taxpayers more than $3.8 billion over ten years.
Hugin’s actions to block generics and drive up prices gave rise to the CREATES Act. Now, after being voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 14 of this year, the legislation continues to gain momentum to protect patients from Hugin’s practices.
Patient perspective
Gulay Turan, of East Rutherford, NJ, maxed out credit cards and sold her furniture in order to afford her 66-year-old mother’s blood cancer medication, Revlimid. “I learned he increased the cost of my mother’s medicine by 100 percent in a decade, and I want him to know this action has consequences. The consequence is my mother is getting sicker, faster…If I could speak to the man responsible for the cost of my mother’s cancer medication, I would tell him about the heartbreak and crushing stress I feel.”
Patients For Affordable Drugs Action is a patient-led political action committee founded to make sure politicians hear from real patients and not just the drug industry political machine. In 2017, Big Pharma spent $25.4 million lobbying, and in the last election cycle donated $247 million to help elect politicians. Patients For Affordable Drugs Action received principal funding from the Action Now Initiative, a political advocacy organization founded by Laura and John Arnold. Patients For Affordable Drugs Action is an independent organization and refuses funding from any organization that profits from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.
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