John,

For years, drug corporations have depended on public taxpayer money to develop new drug treatments. Between 2010 and 2016, every single one of the over 200 new drugs approved for use was supported by research funding from the National Institutes of Health.[1]

Now the Trump Administration is setting up Big Pharma for a publicly-sponsored pandemic payday. Congress has already allocated nearly $10 billion of taxpayer money to help speed discovery and production of a COVID-19 vaccine and other treatments,[2] while Trump and his minions refuse to guarantee the eventual discovery will be made equally available to all.[3]

Now, Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) have introduced two new bipartisan bills that would prevent price-gouging and prohibit monopolies on taxpayer-funded COVID-19 treatments, and ensure Americans know whether Trump is protecting the public interest in supporting COVID-19 drug development with taxpayer investments.

Fight back against pandemic profiteering!

Join Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund and our partners in demanding a future COVID-19 vaccine be made affordable and accessible to everyone, regardless of ability to pay. Become a grassroots co-signer of these critical bills today to ensure equal access to COVID-19 drugs.

A basic sense of humanity would demand such equal access, but it’s especially appropriate given the central role taxpayer dollars are playing in the race for a vaccine, and the big tax favors that are bestowed on drug corporations.

While extracting huge sums from government health systems, drug corporations have a history of adding little back by paying their fair share of taxes. Before passage of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax scam, the pharmaceutical industry had stashed the second highest amount of profits—an estimated $600 billion—offshore to avoid U.S. taxes.[4]

These two new bipartisan bills, introduced in the U.S. House would:

• Prohibit pharmaceutical monopolies and price-gouging on new, taxpayer-funded COVID-19 drugs;

• Ensure universal access to and mandate reasonable, affordable pricing of COVID-19 drugs;

• Enable American taxpayers to track their investments in the creation of COVID-19 drugs, including taxpayer-funded research and development to find a treatment or vaccine, and tax breaks provided to drug corporations.

As with so many broken aspects of American life, the pandemic has laid bare inequalities felt by communities of color. African Americans have died from COVID-19 at twice the rate of any other racial group.[5] Two-thirds of Latinx households have lost jobs or wages due to the pandemic recession. The Navajo Nation has the highest per capita infection rate in the nation.[6]

Communities of color—hardest hit by the virus and accompanying recession—cannot be shut out of the solution. We demand that a future COVID-19 vaccine be made available to everyone, regardless of ability to pay.

The racism that’s made Black, Latinx and Native American populations more vulnerable to disease, economic dislocation and police violence must not be allowed to block these same communities from escaping from pandemic misery.  

Thank you for taking action today to demand that public health come before Big Pharma profits.

Frank Clemente
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

[1] "Drug Corporations' Price Gouging & Tax Dodging Rips Off Patients and Taxpayers," Americans for Tax Fairness and Health Care for America NOW!

[2] “Secretary Azar White House Remarks on Operation Warp Speed,” Dept. of Health and Human Services, May 15, 2020

[3] "Trump Administration Won’t Guarantee Universal Access to COVID-19 Vaccine," Truthout, May 13, 2020

[4] "$2.6 Trillion in Untaxed Offshore Profits of U.S. Multinational Corporations," Americans for Tax Fairness

[5] "Racial Economic Inequality," Inequality.org

[6] "Navajo Nation hit hardest by coronavirus," The New York Times, June 1, 2020