ACTIVISTS APPLAUD SEN. MIKULSKI PUSH FOR AFFORDABLE SCREENING FOR WOMEN BUT ASK: WILL YOU SUPPORT AFFORDABLE TREATMENT WITH AN EFFECTIVE GENERIC BIOLOGICS PATHWAY?
Project:
For Immediate Release
Kim Cunningham, American Medical Student Association (AMSA)
pr [at] amsa [dot] org
Ethan Guillen, Director, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)
ethan [dot] guillen [at] essentialmedicine [dot] org
ACTIVISTS APPLAUD SEN. MIKULSKI PUSH FOR AFFORDABLE SCREENING FOR WOMEN BUT ASK: WILL YOU SUPPORT AFFORDABLE TREATMENT WITH AN EFFECTIVE GENERIC BIOLOGICS PATHWAY?
Today, students from the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) AffordableMedsNow.org campaign applauded the passage of an amendment by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) that ensures affordable access to comprehensive preventative healthcare screenings for women. The groups ask, however, how the United States will be able to afford treatment of those discovered to have breast cancer given the extremely high costs of biologic medicines and specifically Herceptin, a breast cancer treatment which can cost as much as $48,000 per year?
Biologics are the fastest growing segment of the pharmaceutical market and on average cost 22 times the cost of conventional medicines. Current legislation contains a fake generic biologic drugs proposal that will actually block most price-lowering generic competition and access to affordable life-saving biologic medicines. (Learn more here: http://affordablemedsnow.org/index.php/learnmore/)
Current proposals contained in Senate and House healthcare reform legislation that purport to create a pathway to allow affordable biogenerics to come to market will in fact do the opposite, creating only the illusion of generic competition for most biologics. But if these proposals are improved in critical ways, they could save American consumers and taxpayers $71 billion or more in the first decade alone. Fixing this proposal with a more reasonable five years of exclusivity and by closing the evergreening loophole (with provisions such as those in HR 1427 and S 726) are common sense for a bill meant to stop the runaway growth of healthcare costs.
Will our Senators fight for access to affordable treatment as well as screening and push for a true pathway for affordable biologic medicines? AMSA and UAEM call upon the Senate to fight for access to affordable treatment as well as screening, and push for a true pathway for affordable biologic medicines.
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About Universities Allied for Essential Medicines
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is a coalition of students at over 50 top research institutions across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany. UAEM’s mission is to ensure that people in developing countries have access to medicines developed in universities and that university medical research addresses the needs of the majority of the world’s population. As an organization which values innovation, we work to empower students to find new ways to improve access to health throughout the world. www.essentialmedicine.org.
About the American Medical Student Association
The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), with more than a half-century history of medical student activism, is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. Founded in 1950, AMSA is a student-governed, non-profit organization committed to representing the concerns of physicians-in-training. With more than 62,000 members, including medical and premedical students, residents and practicing physicians, AMSA is committed to improving medical training as well as advancing the profession of medicine. To learn more about AMSA, our strategic priorities, or joining the organization, please visit us online at http://www.amsa.org/.
