FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 18th, 2018
Contact: Paige Kelly, pkelly@socialsecurityworks.org
(Washington, DC) — The following is a statement from Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works, in support of the Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act, announced today by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Jan Schakowksy (D-IL):
“People everywhere were rightly outraged when they learned that Mylan was selling EpiPens for around $300 each, making it impossible for many families to afford them. Without an EpiPen, which was invented with taxpayer dollars, a child with a peanut allergy is one poorly labeled cookie away from possible death.
The problem is that when another company ‘came to the rescue’ by introducing a generic alternative they also priced it at $300, because they could. These companies are putting greed above people’s lives. That is why Sen. Warren’s Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act is so important. It would establish a new office to ensure that generic versions of medications like EpiPen are produced, and that they are priced so that every single person who needs them can get them.”
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Social Security Works is the convening group in the Strengthen Social Security Coalition, a coalition comprised of more than 350 national and state organizations representing more than 50 million Americans from many of the nation’s leading aging, labor, disability, women’s, children, consumer, civil rights and equality organizations.