Sen. Millett calls on US government to use power to make medicine affordable for all

State Sen. Rebecca Millett of Cape Elizabeth took part in a national video press conference on Thursday calling on the federal government to disrupt drug company monopolies and take steps to ensure that essential medicines, including COVID treatments, are accessible and affordable to all who need them. 

Millett, a Democrat who serves on the legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, spoke about Maine’s experience with the opioid crisis, which has been exacerbated by the high cost of the anti-overdose drug Narcan.

“During my time in the legislature two of the most pressing issues my colleagues worked to address are the increasing cost of prescription drugs and the deadly opioid epidemic,” said Millett. “Unfortunately these two matters are closely related and fueled by the same thing, corporate greed.”

“No one should die because they can’t afford the treatment they need to live,” she said, “but it’s already happened.” 

Millett and the other half a dozen public officials, advocates and policy experts who spoke highlighted the problem of public dollars being spent on the research and development of medicine that companies eventually patent, securing a monopoly. In turn, they raise the cost of the drugs, placing them out of the reach of many who need them. 

They warned that this cycle is again playing out with potential COVID-19 treatments and vaccines, disproportionately harming Black and Latinx communities most impacted by the pandemic. 

Pointing to the more than $3,000 price tag manufacturer Gilead recently set for the COVID-19 treatment drug remdesivir Maurice BP-Weeks, co-executive director of the Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE), said, “Right there, we know a lot of people are going to be carved out of access to that medication, and when that happens it’s going to hit people of color the hardest.” 

In addition to ACRE, the press conference was organized by national groups including People’s Action, The Center for Popular Democracy, Public Citizen and Social Security Works.

Before the press conference, activists in Washington, D.C. rallied outside of the Department of Health and Human Services and then attempted to deliver letters to Secretary Alex Azar calling on him to use his power to make medicine affordable.

At ⁦@HHSGov⁩ telling Azar to make medicines affordable. #MakeMedicinesWork #Medicines4All #PeoplesVaccine pic.twitter.com/dShDuTduwE

— Zain Rizvi (@zainrizvi) July 9, 2020

Earlier this week, Millett also sent a letter to Azar asking that he “use all tools at [his] disposal,” including the Defense Production Act, to ensure there are no shortages in the supply of essential medicines during the pandemic.

“I am deeply concerned that soon we will face serious shortages,” Millett wrote. “Hospitals are already reporting shortages of medicines needed to respond to the pandemic including items as basic as asthma inhalers. In the mostly rural state of Maine, our hospitals are particularly at risk.”

Specifically, Millett asked Azar to immediately activate “all U.S. public manufacturing facilities to produce any essential medicines in shortage like Azithromycin,” which is used to treat bacterial infections and is currently being studied as a part of a possible treatment combination for COVID. 

She also asked him to utilize Section 1498 of government patent law — which gives the U.S. government the right to use patented inventions without permission, while providing “reasonable” compensation to the patent holder — to “break any patent monopoly, if applicable […] and to allow for low-cost generic competition.” 

Millett additionally encouraged Azar to “begin mass public production of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines that show early efficacy and to authorize multiple manufacturers to produce treatments and vaccines, using Section 1498 to eliminate patent monopolies.”