John,

For the last two decades, Medicare was forced to accept any price Big Pharma set for prescription medicines. With the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden administration is undoing decades of injustice, finally allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices on a few medicines, rather than simply paying the exorbitant prices that Big Pharma sets.

Big Pharma isn't used to losing policy fights. And they freaked out.

Even though the Inflation Reduction Act limits the number of medicines that Medicare can negotiate lower prices on, Big Pharma corporations were so used to the profits from inflated prices that they filed frivolous lawsuits to block Medicare drug price negotiations and block the IRA from taking effect.

Last month, we helped advocates send thousands of letters to the CEO of pharmaceutical corporation Merck demanding they drop their lawsuit. But now, with more corporations filing lawsuits, including Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, we’re joining with allies to fight back.

On August 16—the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act—we’ll deliver petitions to these pharmaceutical corporations demanding that they drop their lawsuits against Medicare and lower drug prices for everyone! Click here to sign our petition.

The lawsuits filed by large pharmaceutical corporations and their associations to overturn Medicare drug price negotiations are unconscionable. In their lawsuit, pharmaceutical giant, Merck, called the Medicare price negotiations a “sham” and a form of “extortion.”¹ Negotiating lower medication prices for seniors who are living on fixed incomes is not “extortion,” it’s just simple fairness.

Despite Medicare being the largest purchaser of prescription drugs in the world, drug corporations’ prices under Medicare Part D are significantly higher than those paid in other countries. The U.S. spends $1,126 per capita on prescription medications vs. $522 per capita in comparable countries.²

Aging Americans and people with disabilities and chronic health conditions bear the brunt of these excessive prices. No one should have to go into debt, go without life-saving medicines or have to choose between prescriptions and other basic needs like groceries and rent. Yet millions across the country do.

Join us in calling on Big Pharma to stop suing Medicare and lower drug prices now.

Thank you for all you do to protect vulnerable people,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ Merck sues over Medicare price negotiations
² How do prescription drug costs in the United States compare to other countries?