[Ip-health] STUDENTS HOLD EVENTS TO ASK CONGRESS: WILL YOU VOTE TO TRICK OR TREAT PATIENTS WITH AFFORDABLE BIOGENERICS?

[Sarah Rimmington]

For Immediate Release

For more information please contact:
Kim Cunningham, American Medical Student Association (AMSA), Phone:
(781) 223-4042 pr@amsa.org

Ethan Guillen, Director, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)
Phone: (775) 287-2553 ethan.guillen@essentialmedicine.org


MEDICAL AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN DC, BALTIMORE, PALO ALTO AND
RALEIGH ASK THEIR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS:
WILL YOU VOTE TO TRICK OR TREAT PATIENTS ?


Today, students from the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) and
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) AffordableMedsNow.org
campaign -- some wearing their ghostly white lab coats -- will visit the
offices of legislators across the country to give out =93treats=94 and urge
them not to =93trick=94 the nation=92s patients with a fake generic biologi=
c
drugs proposal that will actually block price-lowering generic
competition and access to life-saving biologic medicines. Events are
planned in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, MD, Raleigh, NC and Palo Alto, CA.

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.

=93As future physicians we want to ensure that life-saving generic
biologic drugs are made affordable and accessible to our patients,=94 says
Dr. Lauren Hughes, MPH, AMSA national president. =93We are calling upon
Congress to fix the biogenerics proposals in the healthcare reform bills
because they currently do not promote access to these very high priced
and important medicines.=94

Biologics are special medicines derived from living cells. They include
most vaccines and the majority of anti-cancer agents and treatments for
multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Biologics are the fastest
growing segment of the prescription drug market, and are predicted to
soon be 50 percent of new drug approvals. The pharmaceutical industry
charges 22 times more on average for biologics than other drugs, event
though they cost about the same to develop. Examples include breast
cancer drug Herceptin which is priced at $37,000 per patient per year
and Humira, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn=92s disease,
which is priced at $50,000 annually. Already, the top six selling
biologics make up over 40 percent of the Medicare Part B spending.

=93Almost everyone knows someone affected by cancer, rheumatoid arthritis,
or kidney failure,=94 says Jane Andrews, a UAEM medical and public health
student at Johns Hopkins University who is an organizing today=92s event
at Senator Barbara Mikulski=92s Baltimore office. =93Public health
professionals like myself see patients every day who lack access to
biologic drugs to treat these conditions because of their exorbitant
prices. This is why the AffordableMedsNow.org campaign has gathered such
strong support from medical students across the country in such a short
period of time. We know that unless major improvements are made to the
biogenerics proposals currently before Congress, huge numbers of our
patients will never be able to afford the lifesaving biologic medicines
they need.=94

You can find more information on the campaign at
http://www.AffordableMedsNOW.org


=95 Media Contact for Baltimore, MD event: Jane Andrews, Student
Organizer; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, (513) 807-0394,
jandrews@jhsph.edu
=95 Media Contact for Palo Alto, CA event: Connie Chen, Student
Co-Organizer; (626) 806-3705, Conn.Chen@gmail.com
=95 Media Contact for Raleigh, NC event Quang Pham, Student Organizer,
UNC-Chapel Hill; Phone: (704) 763=960170, quang_pham@med.unc.edu
=95 Media Contact for Washington, DC event: Laura Musselwhite, AMSA and
UAEM Student Organizer; (336) 908-6635; laura.musselwhite@gmail.com


###
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=92s 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=92s 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/.


--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: +1 (202) 387-8030
Cell: +1 (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/

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