Washington, D.C. — As part of the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s ongoing seven-figure effort to hold President Donald Trump accountable for his false 2016 campaign promises—and as a collection of former Big Pharma lobbyists, such as U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, are overseeing drug pricing issues—CAPAF is releasing a new video in a targeted paid social media campaign. The campaign will tell stories of Americans such as Quinn Nystrom, a Type 1 diabetic and advocate from Minnesota, who has been negatively affected by the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs.
Watch the video on Twitter.
Watch the video on Facebook.
Nystrom has been an outspoken advocate against price gouging at the three manufacturers of insulin, including Secretary Azar’s former employer, which have used their monopoly to drive up prices astronomically for years. Nystrom says that for her and 7 million other Americans who depend on insulin, they either pay the rising prices or die.
Access to insulin is a human right. It is like the air that each and every one of us breathes. If I don’t have insulin, I don’t live. The price of insulin has simply become unaffordable to many Americans.
Secretary Azar came under intense scrutiny during his Senate confirmation process for his part in raising insulin prices by 300 percent when he was a top executive of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Co., raising the question to many, like Nystrom, of whether he could be trusted to address the problem of prescription drug price gouging.
As Nystrom says in the video, President Trump’s promise of lowering drug prices has been just smoke and mirrors to many who haven’t seen any decrease in insulin costs: “When you hire the person who was directly responsible with increasing the price of insulin for 10 years, call me a pessimist, but I just don’t see it happening.”
According to a new report, pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly were able to “zero out their federal income taxes” as a result of the Trump tax bill, while costs have risen for consumers. Nystrom says that companies that have benefited so much from these cuts have a responsibility to help solve this problem.
“I believe these corporations have an obligation given the large tax benefits they’ve recently received to help everyday Americans,” Nystrom says.
For more information on this topic or to talk to an expert, please contact Freedom Alexander Murphy at [email protected] or 202-796-9712.