In 2019, Trump administration proposal that would create a drug pricing cap exposed a previously silent schism among Democrats — one that pitted progressives against centrists, and even more surprisingly, saw the left side of the party agreeing with the GOP president.
To many, the headline-grabbing fight over the prior administration's drug pricing plan, introduced last summer, was a stark reminder that Congressional Democrats were not willing to push the envelope when it came to Big Pharma, and that many patient advocacy groups took donations from the industry. Some goodwill was made up when the late Rep. Elijah Cummings introduced House Resolution 3, also known as the Lower Drug Costs Now Act — but it was swiftly vetoed by the president as soon as it passed the House in December 2019.
However, some progressive groups have broken from the herd in favor of the popular policy of capping drug prices — a trend that is certain to be taken up by the new Congress.
The progressive think tank Data for Progress (DFP), which counts itself among the vanguard of groups pushing drug price capping, issued polling in 2019 that found voters overwhelmingly favor policies that would reduce drug prices. More than 50% of the 1,000+ people polled said they support such policies as generic licensing and government investment to drive down prices.
“As Democrats move forward with legislation on prescription drug costs,” the DFP report prescribed, “their central message should be a moral case against pharmaceutical industry profits and the idea that patents are a privilege the industry has abused.”
Thankfully, the think tank is not alone.
The Indivisible Project, a multi-issue grassroots organization founded in late 2016 in response to Trump’s presidential win, mobilized its state affiliates to encourage voters to lobby in favor of HR3 and to push for key additions to the bill. Since 2019, the group has continued its campaign for lower drug costs and against Big Pharma by supporting candidates who are already working to increase access to forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines.
Indivisible is joined by the Center for American Progress, Public Citizen, the Center for Popular Democracy, and Social Security Works in its lobbying efforts aimed at drug pricing caps. Those groups and others, including unions like the Communication Workers of America and large nonprofits like Oxfam, supported legislation introduced over the summer of 2020 to prevent Big Pharma from coronavirus vaccine price gouging.
When it comes to this battle, however, no group is as dedicated as Patients for Affordable Drugs Now (P4AD). As the organization’s name suggests, the fight against drug price gouging is their main game, and they walk the walk by refusing to take donations from any group that stands to profit from pharmaceuticals.
Instead of tiptoeing around the issue or paying lip service to un-snaring Big Pharma’s influence in Congress, P4AD plays up their opposition to the pharmaceutical industry by issuing press releases showing drug companies’ “culture of greed” and fact-checking “dubious claims” about drug prices.
P4AD also has a spinoff political action committee, Patients for Affordable Drugs Action, which spent big in the 2018 midterms, both supporting candidates who promote their cause and attacking those who oppose it. In 2020, they’ve hosted get-out-the-vote efforts with their Fight Pharma campaign, which encourages people to “be a drug price voter.”
Though drug pricing advocacy is still considered controversial in the lobbying world, the growing popularity of these policies — and increasingly dire public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic — ensure that the fight against Big Pharma will continue and that progressive organizations are likely to keep taking up the mantle.
