I am writing in my capacity as the publisher of the
TodaysSeniorsNetwork blog sites that include TodaysSeniorsNetwork, RxforAmericanHealth, and AmericanRxBillofRights.
I applaud your efforts in calling for investigations into
the outrageous pricing practices of Mylan’s EpiPen Auto-Injector.
Hopefully, this or some series of the many investigations
that have occurred as a result of public outrage over not just this instance,
but a of pattern of Pharma pricing abuses, will somehow finally lead to true
reform.
However, it is undeniable that Pharma has a philosophy of
charging what the traffic will bear, irrespective of how many investigations
are launched. Regrettably, the investigations have a familiar
outcome: A group of ‘experts’ testify, questions are asked, statements
made, and within weeks, Pharma once again not merely raises prices, but does so
to such a level as to threaten the very health and well-being of Americans.
The major problem is that, as in the old country
saying, the horse is out of the barn by the time the investigations are
held, and investigations in and of themselves are brushed aside by
Pharma, which continues with its abusive pricing practices.
The EpiPen price increases also illustrate the willingness
of Pharma to attack the most vulnerable members of our society. Its
long-standing opposition to Personal Importation became and remains a major
issue even with Part D passage as an attack upon America’s Elderly. At a
press conference after a Pfizer Board meeting, then CEO Henry McKinnell
commenting on remarks by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said that efforts to
lower prescription prices were nothing more than “a Prairie Fire
that breaks about every four years as an election issue and then burns out.’’
Those comments underlie the attitude that Pharma
practices today, more than a decade later. It acts, Congress reacts,
hearings are held, statements issued—and we all brace for Pharma’s next abuse.
The EpiPen price increases were an attack upon the parents
and children of America, and those others for whom allergies are not merely a
‘seasonal’ nuisance, but actually potentially life-threatening conditions.
Because of that, rather than merely attempting to find out
why or how such predatory pricing occurs, it is time for Congress to take
action to introduce and pass comprehensive legislation that will make prescription
medicines readily available and affordable for the literally millions of
Americans that are denied access to the health benefits possible only through
access to a regiment of such safe, effective and affordable medicines.
It is time to face the truth: irrespective of the
potential health benefits from a medicine, an unaffordable medicine is
unavailable in and of itself because of its price, and a medicine that is not
available and is not taken, is ‘ineffective.’
With that in mind, I am including the articles of the
RxBillofRights with this letter. It includes a series of proposals, many
of which you have supported. It is time for a new approach which will have a
synergistic favorable impact upon availability, access, price and health benefits.
For the record, I am a long-time supporter of and
communications consultant of the personal importation of safe, affordable
brand-name medicines from licensed, registered pharmacies in Tier One countries
whose standards of safety and efficacy meet or exceed those of the US.
I support immediate favorable action by Congress to allow
personal importation as a part of the comprehensive strategy of the
AmericanRxBillofRights, since even with investigations, study groups being
formed, and the reliance upon generics (which have also undergone outrageous
price increases), personal importation offers the only immediate relief to
millions of Americans who simply cannot afford their medicines.
The EpiPen issue illustrates that personal importation is
the only immediate relief for Pharma pricing practices is, even with the
questionable ‘staging’ of the introduction of price reduction certificates and
a ‘new’ generic EpiPen, the cost of Epi Pen from Canada is still as much as
two-thirds less that the exact authentic product in the U.S.
This and other examples of the benefits of access to safe,
authentic medicines show why it is time to take a new approach towards
drug pricing legislation that offer solutions to the challenges to
Americans’ health and well-being from pricing abuses of Pharma.
Thank you for your consideration of this letter. I
look forward to your response, and the opportunity to share it with the many
visitors to our sites.
Respectfully,
Daniel
Hines
Daniel Hines
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