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It may shock you to learn, but there was once a time when the inventors of life-saving drugs were not first obsessed with making huge sums of money, but were instead obsessed with making people well.
Dr. Jonas Salk who invented the vaccine for polio could have chosen to patent his work and made billions of dollars. But he did not.
The inventors of insulin sold their patents in 1923 for just $1 to save lives.
But today in America, despite what drug company TV ads say, the primary function of the pharmaceutical industry is not to come up with new drugs that will save lives and alleviate pain. And it is certainly not to make sure that all Americans can afford the drugs they need.
Simply stated, the function of the major drug companies is to charge the highest prices they can get away with in order to enrich their investors.
As a result of their greed, one in four Americans cannot afford the cost of the medications their doctors prescribe.
As a result of their greed, there are millions of people who are sick, go to a doctor, get a diagnosis of their medical condition, but cannot get the medicine they need to treat it.
As a result of their greed, people die because they cannot afford the medications they need while the pharmaceutical industry makes much higher profit margins than any other industry.
It is truly a horrifying, barbaric and dysfunctional system.
And what is even more perverse about it all, and what many Americans don't know is just how much taxpayers subsidize the research and development enjoyed by pharmaceutical companies.
Through the funding of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other government agencies, and grants to universities and research institutes, the taxpayers of this country are paying billions of dollars for the research that has created some of the most important life-saving drugs on the market.
Unfortunately, the results of that research are simply given over to the drug companies with no strings attached.
In other words, the American people have paid to fund the research that sets the foundation for virtually all new prescription drugs, and in exchange pay the highest prices for medicine of anywhere in the world.
The American people have paid to fund the invention of many life-saving medicines, and in exchange 1 in 4 people can't afford the drugs they need to stay healthy or alive.
The American people have paid to scale up manufacturing of prescription drugs, and in exchange the top pharmaceutical companies made over $112 billion last year.
The American people have paid to advance clinical trials of medicines, and in exchange drug companies reckless profiteering are bankrupting Medicare and the federal government.
I heard a lot of my Republican colleagues moaning and groaning about the deficit for the past few weeks, but I didn't hear a single one of them talk about how if we are serious about reducing the national debt, we must substantially lower the price that Medicare pays for prescription drugs.
No. Not at all.
But what I do hear all over this country is the American people asking how many people need to die, how many people need to get unnecessarily sicker, before Congress is prepared to take on the greed of the prescription drug industry?
I hear them asking how is it that U.S. taxpayers almost always pay more than people in other countries for treatments that NIH scientists help to invent?
I hear them asking how is it that drug companies are allowed to charge $200,000 for a treatment for a product that costs them a few hundred dollars to manufacture?
I hear them asking how is it that while 1 in 4 Americans can't afford the drugs they need, the 50 top executives in ten pharmaceutical companies took home over $1.5 billion in compensation and stock awards?
That is what I hear. Now I am asking my colleagues to hear you on this issue:
Can you please sign my petition calling on Congress to finally summon the long-overdue courage to take on the drug companies and substantially lower the cost of prescription drugs in this country?
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Drug researchers tell us that innovation has the potential to cure or, at the very least, alleviate the worst impacts of terrible illnesses — cancer, heart and respiratory disease, COVID, strokes, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and Parkinson’s, to name just a few. Americans know millions of lives can be saved.
But to do that, this country needs a pharmaceutical industry that is 100 percent engaged in research and development to discover those cures, not one that spends billions on lobbying, campaign contributions, and advertising in order to maintain huge profits and CEO compensation packages.
Thank you for joining me in that fight.
In solidarity,
Bernie Sanders
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❗️Don’t close this email yet❗️
If Congress is ever going to find the courage to take on the greed and recklessness of the pharmaceutical industry, it has to start with people making their voices heard. It’s the only way.
Through two presidential campaigns and my work in the Senate, we have made considerable progress in turning public opinion in our favor on this issue. But we cannot stop now.
That is why I am asking you to sign my petition calling on Congress to finally summon the long-overdue courage to take on the drug companies and substantially lower the cost of prescription drugs in this country.
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