Dear John:

Did you know that a major drug company, Gilead, plans to price-gouge Americans on COVID-19 medication? They plan to charge us $3,000 per patient, at least 33 percent more than people in any other country. This drug costs them $10 to produce.

That shameful price-gouging is bad enough, but what if I told you that you already paid for the drug? The U.S. government–in other words, you and me–paid $100 million dollars to develop the medication in the first place.

Every new drug brought to market in the last decade was developed through public funding and investment. Yet pharmaceutical corporations profiteer and price gouge to profit off our pain. They’re now profiteering off the pandemic and disproportionately harming Black and brown communities.

Medicines can’t work if nobody can afford them. That’s why Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE), Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), People’s Action, Public Citizen, and Social Security Works (SSW) have teamed up to Make Medicines Work.

Join grassroots leaders, experts and elected officials on July 9, 2020 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern to talk about this crisis and what we can do to fight COVID-19 and win access to lifesaving medications.

We’ll be joined by:

Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin
State Senator Rebecca Millett, Maine
LaDon Love, Executive Director of SPACEs In Action
Maurice Weeks, Co-Executive Director, Action Center on Race and the Economy
Peter Maybarduk, Director of Access To Medicines program, Public Citizen
Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works
Carrie McBane, Down Home North Carolina
and others!

Join us on July 9 to find out how to put a stop to drug company price-gouging and make medicines work!

Sincerely,

Connie Huynh
People’s Action