CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Patients For Affordable Drugs Action today announced a multi-million dollar effort to ensure North Carolina voters hear the truth about Senator Thom Tillis’ record of fighting for Big Pharma instead of North Carolina patients.
The campaign will include TV, radio, and digital ads featuring stories of North Carolina patients struggling with high prescription drug prices and detailing the ways Senator Tillis has consistently sided against them. The campaign will also include a website where voters can hear more stories about the impact of high drug prices on North Carolina patients.
Watch the kickoff TV ad here.
“Thom Tillis is by far the worst member of the Senate on drug pricing, and it’s hurting patients in North Carolina and across the country,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and president of Patients For Affordable Drugs Action. “He opposes bills to lower prices and introduced legislation to give Big Pharma even more monopoly power to raise prices. Thom Tillis serves Big Pharma — not patients — and it’s time for him to go.”
Tillis opposed legislation to lower drug prices and wrote a bill that would give Big Pharma more power to raise prices after taking $344,000 from drug corporations — the second-most money of all members of Congress. Tillis has invited pharma lobbyists to review legislation before he introduces it.
Today’s ad tells the story of Steven Hadfield, a multiple myeloma patient from Charlotte whose cancer medication, Imbruvica, costs $132,000 each year.
Patients For Affordable Drugs Action is a political action committee founded to make sure politicians hear from real patients and not just the pharmaceutical industry political machine. Big Pharma spent $298.2 million lobbying in 2019 and donated $29.3 million to help elect politicians in the last election cycle. Patients For Affordable Drugs Action received funding from the Action Now Initiative, LLC. Patients For Affordable Drugs Action is an independent organization and refuses funding from any organization that profits from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.
TRANSCRIPT
I have a rare blood cancer.
I’ve been fighting it for seven years.
$132,000 — that’s the annual price for my cancer medication.
You wonder how everybody survives.
The doctor has recommended me to work less, but I live in fear over my high drug prices.
Meanwhile, Thom Tillis wrote a bill that would let drug companies keep raising their prices.
It’s real easy to see who Thom Tillis is working for — and it’s not us.
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Paid for by Patients For Affordable Drugs Action, www.p4adaction.org. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.