Affordable Access to Medicines

At Pfizer, our more than 90,000 colleagues around the world come to work every day with a singular purpose: breakthroughs that change patients’ lives. Inherent in our purpose is the understanding that our breakthroughs also must be accessible to patients.   

That’s why we are continually working with governments, policymakers, payers and other players in the healthcare ecosystem to advocate for affordable access and for pro-innovation policies that benefit patients. And it’s why I was glad to have the opportunity to participate in yesterday’s U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing regarding the challenges U.S. patients face in getting affordable access to medicine.   

There are two indisputable truths that make this the exact right moment for change. Medicines alleviate human suffering and reduce overall system costs, and the horribly misaligned incentives within the U.S. healthcare system often prevent medicines from getting in the hands of patients. 

During yesterday’s hearing, Pfizer proposed four ideas that we believe would drive meaningful reductions in costs for patients: 

1.     Passing all rebates to patients

2.     Implementing a “less value; less pay” reimbursement philosophy

3.     Capping seniors’ out-of-pocket medicine costs

4.     Knocking down barriers to lower-cost biosimilars  

We have outlined each of these ideas in the written testimony that we submitted to Congress, which you can read here.

In 2018, we estimate[i] that more than 784 million people around the world used a Pfizer medicine or vaccine to improve their health and, in many cases, save their lives. These are staggering and humbling numbers. More important, they represent real people; real people who rely on our innovations. How many more fathers have lived to see their daughters’ college graduations? How many more mothers have danced at their sons’ weddings? How many more grandparents are spending Saturday afternoons at a park watching the grandchildren play soccer? 

This is why we come to work every day. And it’s why we embrace the opportunity to work with our peers, other participants in the healthcare system, and Congress to find ways to ensure the patients who need our medicines can access them so our industry’s breakthroughs can continue to change patients’ lives.

[i] Patient counts are estimates derived from multiple data sources.