AFP launches new digital ad campaign in Arizona, 8 other congressional districts on drug price controls

Feb 2, 2022 by AFP

The new six-figure effort comes as Congress prepares to revive drug price control provision included in last year’s failed “Build Back Better” plan.

Arlington, Va. – Americans for Prosperity today announced that it is launching a new digital ad campaign targeting Arizona and 8 congressional districts urging Americans to oppose congressional attempts to impose government price controls on prescription drugs.

A new 30-second video highlights the Biden administration’s lack of preparedness on COVID-19 testing, explaining that the officials who dropped the ball on testing should not be entrusted with something as important as the medications millions of people rely on to stay healthy. “We can’t trust the politicians on COVID testing,” explains the ad’s narrator. “And we can’t trust them controlling our medicines.”

The spot will run on digital channels statewide across Arizona.

Click here to watch the ad

Another series of display ads will target eight House members who last year voted for price controls as part of President Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill. The ads warn lawmakers in those districts against doubling down on their previous vote. The list of lawmakers is as follows: Reps. Tom Malinowski (NJ-7), Cindy Axne (IA-3), Lizzie Fletcher (TX-7), Chris Pappas (NH-1), Elaine Luria (VA-2), Elissa Slotkin (MI-8), Haley Stevens (MI-11), Tom O’Halleran (AZ-1).

Click here to view a sample ad

“The government’s negligent approach to COVID-19 testing and therapeutics shows that Washington cannot be trusted to control any part of our health care,” said Dean Clancy, Senior Health Policy Fellow at Americans for Prosperity. “Giving these same politicians and bureaucrats control over our medicine cabinets is a prescription for disaster that will stifle new medicines and eliminate hope for new cures. Before they vote again to give Washington unprecedented new powers, members of Congress should think long and hard about the harm that price controls will inflict on patients and their families.”

The new six-figure effort is the latest installment in AFP’s national “Hands off our cures” campaign which is aimed at educating and mobilizing Americans to stop harmful drug price controls, and instead support a personal option for health care.

Background

Polling shows that voters have significant concerns over drug price controls when their true impact is understood. A YouGov/AFP survey found that just 32% of voters said the government should strictly control the price of prescription drugs if it leads to drug shortages or fewer new drugs coming to market in the future.

A Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 65% of voters oppose price controls if it means less research and development of new drugs. And that’s exactly what experts say will happen.

And a study by University of Chicago economist Tomas Philipson found that price controls would not just slow down drug development but essentially stop it altogether. Philipson’s analysis projects that pharmaceutical research and development spending would decline between 29.9% and 60% under the plan. That’s equivalent to a decline of between $952 billion and $2 trillion. As a result, Philipson estimates that over the next 20 years as many as 342 new drugs would never be developed. To put that in context, in the last 20 years the FDA has approved a total of 644 new drugs.