John,

Creating a vaccine and making it available to all for free should be the top priority for our government. And, in the meantime, we must force the Trump administration to manufacture Personal Protective Equipment.

Instead, the Trump administration plans on allowing pharmaceutical companies to use monopoly power to charge high prices for a vaccine.

• When Health & Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was asked during a congressional hearing whether the government could assure that a Coronavirus vaccine would be available and affordable to all Americans, he stated plainly that it could not

• When the FDA Commissioner was asked about the government’s plan to distribute a vaccine he said the cost of a vaccine is not the FDA’s responsibility

• And then this week, Trump picked an ex-drug company executive to lead the strategy to distribute a future COVID-19 vaccine

We refuse to let Big Pharma profit off this pandemic. Add your name to tell Donald Trump and Congress to end the monopolies on life-saving drugs, and pass the COVID-19 Emergency Manufacturing Act now.

When this administration claims they have no control over the price of prescription drugs and vaccines, it is nothing but a lie.

Under an existing law called government patent use, our leaders have the ability to break pharmaceutical monopolies to bring down drug prices. But rather than lowering drug prices — especially now in the middle of a pandemic — the Trump administration is preparing to help Big Pharma profiteer off of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Why? Because they know there’s a lot of money to be made from a vaccine the entire world wants.

It would be morally unforgivable if we denied access to a life-saving vaccine to millions of people because they couldn’t afford it. In this time of crisis, we cannot forget our humanity.

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s new bill, the COVID-19 Emergency Manufacturing Act, will force HHS to begin public manufacturing of PPE, testing supplies, and treatment medications, and be able to issue compulsory licenses breaking any patent monopoly that gets in the way of public manufacturing. That’s why we need Congress to pass this bill now.

Please join us in calling out Big Pharma on their drug monopoly profiteering. We the people demand that a coronavirus vaccine and treatments be made affordable and available to all.

In solidarity,

Ady Barkan
Be a Hero