Patient-Led Group Spends $3.5 Million to Stop Big Pharma CEO Bob Hugin from Becoming New Jersey’s Next Senator

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The price of Celgene’s cancer drugs kept going up while Big Pharma CEO Bob Hugin kept getting richer. That’s why Patients For Affordable Drugs Action spent nearly $3.5 million to make sure voters across New Jersey know the truth about Hugin’s record. Bob Hugin exploited cancer patients by doubling the price of a 50-year-old cancer drug, blocking cheaper generics, and pocketing more than $100 million for himself.

“Bob Hugin is the poster child for everything that’s wrong with prescription drugs in America,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Action. “Because of his greed, cancer patients went into debt, cheaper generics were blocked from coming to market and drug prices kept rising. There’s no question, New Jersey can’t afford Bob Hugin.”

Patients For Affordable Drugs Action’s $3.5 million patient-led campaign in New Jersey included television ads, digital ads, and other voter communications to expose the truth about Bob Hugin.

• Three TV ads –– "The Guy Who Made A Killing," "Alive," and “Send” –– exposed how Bob Hugin raised drug prices so high that cancer patients were forced into debt just to stay alive.
• Digital ads included 15-second spots on Hugin’s greed, homepage takeovers during the debate, and patients telling their stories to warn voters about Big Pharma CEO Bob Hugin.
• A report, Truth About Bob Hugin, took an in-depth look at how Hugin doubled the price of a life-saving cancer medication and abused our system to maintain a monopoly on pricing power.
• New Jersey patients spoke out about how Bob Hugin exploited cancer patients by doubling the price of a lifesaving cancer drug, blocking cheaper generics, and pocketing more than $100 million for himself.
  • David Mitchell, founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Action, wrote an oped for the Asbury Press Herald, Hugin, the guy who made killing off patients like me to detail his history with Hugin.
  • Gulay Turan, a daughter and East Rutherford resident who sold her furniture to help her dying mother afford the medicine Hugin price gouged.
  • Robert Keller, of Parsippany, a man living with diabetes who has struggled to afford insulin.

Health care is the No. 1 issue for voters across the country this election. Passing legislation to bring down the cost of prescription drugs is, according to Kaiser’s latest tracking poll, a top driver of people’s vote choices in 2018.

Patients For Affordable Drugs Action is the first bipartisan patient-led super PAC focused on lowering drug prices. This election cycle, it engaged in advertising and voter engagement to support Republicans and Democrats who have stood up for patients and fought for lower drug prices or to defeat politicians who are in the pockets of Big Pharma.

In 2016, Big Pharma spent $247 million lobbying, and in the last election cycle donated nearly $30 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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