AHF To President Obama: Less Talk, More Action On Drug Pricing

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

In anticipation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) holding a November 20^thforum in Washington, DC on the $500 billion pharmaceutical industry, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) President Michael Weinstein and AHF Chief of Public Affairs and General Counsel Tom Myers will be available all day on November 19^th to discuss the jeopardy of skyrocketing specialty drug pricing on a domestic and international scale.

“Despite having eight years to stand up to the pharmaceutical industry’s insatiable greed for huge profits at the public’s expense, President Obama has not used the power of his office to negotiate drug prices on behalf of the federal government,” Weinstein contends. “Given this administration’s dismal track record on this issue, we don’t have a lot of confidence that much will come from this forum—other than a lot of backslapping and empty rhetoric.”

Drug pricing advocates affiliated with AHF filed 550,000 registered California voter signatures with state election officials on November 2^nd to qualify The California Drug Price Relief Act, a statewide ballot initiative that will revise California law to require state programs to pay no more for prescription medications than the prices negotiated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The V.A. generally pays 20% to 24% less than any government program. The advocates intend to qualify the measure for the November 2016 presidential election ballot in California.

Advocates from AHF and ‘Ohioans for Fair Drug Prices’ have also been collecting voter signatures in Ohio for a similar drug pricing ballot measure since mid-August. State officials approved petition language in early August. Both the California and Ohio measures are expected to qualify for, and appear on the November 2016 presidential election ballots in their respective states.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 500,000 individuals in 36 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151119006029/en/

• Health Care Industry
• Michael Weinstein
• AIDS Healthcare Foundation
• President Obama
• pharmaceutical industry

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