The events held across the world today are meant to highlight a handful of the most profit-driven pharmaceutical companies not only permitting but also encouraging and contributing to high prices. However, we are also protesting against PhRMA today because, while there are specific people and companies that epitomize the many shortcomings of the current biomedical R&D system that facilitate the high pricing of medicines, this is ultimately a systemic problem. Changing the behavior of one person or one company will not fix this problem and they cannot be held responsible on their own without considering the bigger system they operate within. It will not make a significant enough dent in the number of people dying due to lack of access to medicines that exist but are priced out of reach for the millions that need them. Rather, the industry as a whole must be recognized as unethical and quite literally, willing to kill patients for the right price. We demand industry-wide change.

It is important to also recognize the fact that high prices disproportionately affect minorities and the poor. New drugs that cure hepatitis C with minimal side effects are $80,000 per pill. Black men and women in the US account for 22% of hepatitis C and die from the disease in middle age at twice the rate of whites. Native Americans/Alaskan Natives have an even higher mortality. Hepatitis C now kills more in the US than HIV.

International treatment of hepatitis C and other major illnesses with available medicines is in the hands of the drug companies which push for long-term monopolies patent protections in trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. These monopolies, in the form of extended patents and exclusive marketing rights, delay the production and availability of lifesaving, affordable generic medicines.

PhRMA is currently violating the right to health for millions. New medications are here or in the pipeline for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, clotting disorders, HIV and hepatitis. Don’t wait until it’s your disease you can’t afford to treat! We need to demand affordable prices and attack practices that block access to care, including adoption of the TPP.

We demand that PhRMA:

• Congress to oppose trade agreement provisions, such as in the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, that benefit Pharma monopolies and further facilitate high pricing.

• We furthermore ask Congress and Presidential Candidates to publicly endorse a global R&D agreement at the World Health Organization, which would set worldwide standards to eliminate high pricing in the future.

• Calls upon its member companies to take measures to improve access to medicines. These measures should include alternative financing, innovation prizes and needs-driven research. We specifically call for pricing mechanisms which allow for prices that are not linked to the cost of research and development.