Dear Friend,

I wanted to make sure you saw this important message from Rich. We need to mobilize because right now there is nothing stopping rich pharmaceutical corporations from profiteering from the coronavirus outbreak.

This morning Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky was on television promoting a promising Coronavirus vaccine his company has developed and will start testing later this year. That’s great -- but there’s no guarantee that this vaccine -- or any other developed to prevent or treat coronavirus will be affordable for everyone.

That’s wrong. Please sign our petition demanding that Congress take action to stop price-gouging and monopolies during the Coronavirus outbreak and in the future.

Millions of taxpayer dollars go into vaccine and drug development every year, including $450 million for Johnson & Johnson alone. We’re subsidizing drug development -- and should be able to buy them at an affordable cost.

Thanks for joining our fight.

Brendan Kelly

Director of Field Mobilization

Alliance for Retired Americans

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Richard Fiesta

Date: Friday, March 27, 2020

Subject: Tell Congress: No Coronavirus Monopolies for Drug Corporations

The federal government is spending millions of dollars to develop a vaccine that can prevent future outbreaks of the dangerous coronavirus. And while scientists are working day and night to save lives, wealthy pharmaceutical corporations are up to their usual tricks.

Right now drug corporations are spending tens of thousands of dollars lobbying on Capitol Hill to prevent limitations on how much they can charge for coronavirus drugs.

That’s outrageous. Tell Congress that drugs developed with taxpayer dollars MUST be affordable and available to all who need them.

If Congress fails to act, today’s public health crisis could continue because millions of Americans may end up unable to afford the drugs they need to prevent and treat coronavirus.

This is the worst public health crisis in our lifetimes and our government should be spending our tax dollars to help create new drugs that benefit all of us. But it’s wrong for us to pay to create drugs only to have wealthy corporations charge as much as they want for it!

Whatever happened to “We the People?”

Congress must step in. Please sign our petition demanding that our elected leaders prevent drug price-gouging and pharmaceutical monopolies now.

 

Thanks for all you do.

Richard Fiesta

Executive Director

Alliance for Retired Americans