JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Today, Patients For Affordable Drugs Action, a national patient advocacy group, launched a campaign in Florida with a new digital ad. The ad features Jacksonville resident Clayton “DJ” Martin sharing his experience with high-priced prescription drugs and calling on fellow voters to support candidates who will stand up to Big Pharma and fight to lower drug prices. In addition to today’s ad, the campaign will include digital organizing and grassroots advocacy to ensure politicians get the message: Floridians need lower drug prices now.
Watch the ad here.
“By sharing his experience, DJ, a person with sickle cell disease, is ensuring Florida’s politicians get the message: Voters want reforms that will lower drug prices,” said David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the president of Patients For Affordable Drugs Action. “It’s so important that people who are struggling under the burden of high prescription drug prices make their voices heard, especially during the current pandemic, when the problem of rising drug prices is only getting worse.”
The five-figure ad will run on digital platforms across the state and feature prominently on a campaign website that includes the stories of patients across the country facing skyrocketing drug prices. The website serves as an action hub and gives Florida residents digital tools to demand that 2020 candidates commit to plans to lower drug prices.
Clayton “DJ” Martin, Jacksonville, FL, sickle cell disease: “As a father with sickle cell, with a daughter with the sickle cell trait, I worry about her future because of the high prices of drugs.”
The Florida campaign is a part of a seven-figure national grassroots campaign calling on voters in key states across the country to support candidates who will stand up to Big Pharma and fight to lower prescription drug prices. So far, the campaign is also active in Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Virginia.
According to a recent national survey, 7 out of 10 likely voters say a candidate’s positions on lowering prescription drug prices is important in deciding who to vote for — including 30 percent who say it is very important. Nearly 1 in 3 adults report not taking their medicines as prescribed because of the cost. Big Pharma spent $298.2 millionlobbying in 2019 and donated $29.3 million to help elect politicians in the last election cycle.
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. Patients For Affordable Drugs Action received principal funding from 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.
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Paid for by Patients For Affordable Drugs Action, www.p4adaction.org. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.