Subject: Re: DRAFT: HRC (LGBT) event tomorrow
From: "Ann O'Leary" <[email-masked]>
To: Megan Rooney <[email-masked]>
Cc: Speech Drafts <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2015 09:51:37 -0700
List-Id: <speechdrafts.hillaryclinton.com>

I'd include a riff on prescription drugs since it so impacts this community
and the drug in question last week was specifically to help HIV students.

Attached and here is my suggestion:

And it is not just access to health insurance, many people who are
HIV-positive are living today because they rely on the scientific
breakthroughs in the pharmaceutical industry that have allowed them to
combat the underlying infection and the illnesses that come along with it.
But today the pharmaceutical industry is taking the R&D dollars provided by
the federal government and then trying to make excessive profits, rather
than ensuring that people with serious illnesses and chronic health
conditions have access to the prescription drugs they need.  You may have
read in the last few weeks about a drug that’s been around for decades that
went from $13.50 per pill… to $750 per pill… literally overnight.  This
isn’t a new breakthrough drug. It is a drug that helps HIV-positive
patients live healthy lives. This is price gouging, pure and simple.
Pharmaceutical companies buy the patent for an existing, affordable drug
that people rely on, and charge a fortune for it, because they know people
will pay.  Now with my pressure and others, the maker of the drug says
he’ll lower the price, but he hasn’t done it yet and every day he doesn’t
do it, someone with HIV is being forced to pay $750 a pill to access the
drug they need.  That’s why I put together a comprehensive plan last week
to cap out of pocket expenses for people who are spending hundreds if not
thousands of dollars each month on the drugs they need, and that is why my
plan calls for a stop to excessive profits, reinvestment in R&D, and
mechanisms that will begin to control the outrageous cost of drugs.

On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 9:38 AM, Megan Rooney <[email-masked]>
wrote:

> Hi all -- here are remarks for tomorrow's speech to the Human Rights
> Campaign.  Please send edits by 530pm.  Thanks.
>
>
>

-- 
Ann O'Leary
Senior Policy Advisor
Hillary for America
Cell: 510-717-5518