Letter to Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, and Hon. Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader - Frontline Democrats Press House Leadership to Include Prescription Drugs Provisions in Build Back Better Act

Letter

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer:

Thank you for your leadership and continued efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs. As
majority-makers in competitive districts, we promised our constituents that we would come to
Washington to fight on their behalf for lower drug prices. We cannot turn back now on our
promise to the American people. We urge you in the strongest terms possible to include
legislative language in the Build Back Better Act that will be voted on by the full House to
accomplish this.

For too long, the pharmaceutical industry has raked in extraordinary profits, while Americans
routinely pay more than three times what people in other countries pay for the same medicines.
As a country, we spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on prescription drugs, and yet our
constituents must often choose between purchasing prescribed medications or putting food on the
table. It is unacceptable that anyone in the wealthiest country in the world cannot access the
medications they need to stay alive.

With two lobbyists per Member of Congress, we know that Big Pharma is deeply invested in the
status quo. Our current system forbids Medicare from negotiating the prices it pays for
prescription drugs. As a result, millions of Americans are forced to spend thousands of dollars a
year on their medications -- or go without.

In many cases, as with insulin, these medications have been on the market for decades. In 1991,
a bottle of Humalog insulin cost $21. Today the average list price is over $300. That is
inexcusable. In these instances, we are not paying for research and development. By allowing the
cost of drugs like insulin to rise year after year, we are financing soaring executive salaries, stock
buybacks and outrageous profit margins on the backs of our seniors.

With the Build Back Better agenda, we have a perhaps once in a generation opportunity to
change the status quo and make good on our promise that no one should have to choose between affording their prescription drugs or food or housing. The public is on our side. Big Pharma is
not.

Soon, we must go back to our districts and explain what we've done in Washington to make our
constituents' lives better. We ran on upsetting the status quo and lowering out-of-pocket costs for
healthcare and prescription drugs. If we fail, those on the other side of this issue will need to
explain to Americans why they let Big Pharma win, why entrenched special interests take
precedence over the American people.

You have dedicated your careers to lowering the cost of healthcare. We stand with you in your
continued efforts. The moment is now. We must deliver on our promise to lower the amount of
money our constituents pay for prescription drugs. We must demonstrate that we work for the
American people and not the pharmaceutical industry. Our constituents are counting on us.

Sincerely,