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As COVID-19 continues to spread across the world, cancer patients, their doctors and families are struggling to find more information about how COVID-19 could affect them. From what is currently reported, cancer patients are a highly vulnerable group but we do not know yet how vulnerable. We know that cancer and cancer treatments can weaken a patient’s immune systems but there are not many data points, nor test results yet. What is most needed today is collaboration and openness. UACT signed this Open Letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) and its Member States on the proposal by Costa Rica to create a global poolRead More →

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The Hill (TheHill.com) is an American political news website, based in Washington, D.C. which focuses on politics, policy, business and international relations. The Hill’s coverage includes the U.S. Congress, the presidency, and election campaigns. On its website, The Hill is described as standing “alone in delivering solid, nonpartisan reporting on the inner workings of Congress and the nexus of politics and business. The newspaper and its online platform connect the political players, define the issues, and influence the way Washington’s decision-makers view the debate.” On October 9, 2019, The Hill published an article by Peter Sullivan titled “2020 Democrats embrace aggressive step on drug prices.”Read More →

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The British Labour Party’s platform on access to health, “MEDICINES FOR THE MANY: Public Health before Private Profit,” is organized in five well-written and powerful policy chapters. In 52 pages, the Labour Party takes a strong stand defending patients instead of profits. It also provides a clear explanation of a new set of needed health policies, fully laying out rationale to implementation. The first chapter covers the current United Kingdom (UK) health system including the pricing of medicines. The second chapter deals with the many problems that plague the existing health care system from the lack of transparency to the pharmaceutical lobby. The third chapter,Read More →

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Today President Trump promised (again) that he would bring down drug prices and put American patients first. The administration’s approach is to change how Medicare Part B (coverage available as an option for American residents when they are 65 years old or older, or if they qualify through a disability) pays for some of the most expensive prescription drugs, and attempts to imitate (irony alert) what President Trump blames other countries for doing: negotiating prices for their citizens, based largely upon the foreign prices themselves. A planned “international pricing index” (IPI), would cap certain Medicare Part B drug prices to an index from 16 otherRead More →

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The following is the UACT Statement on the July 26, 2018 draft of the NCD outcomes document. July 30, 2018 Today, for patients, their families and caregivers, it is clear that the prices of medicines for cancer and other non-communicable diseases are excessive, and that access to both new and even many older medicines is both restricted and shockingly unequal. None of these core truths is reflected in this draft declaration. It is obvious that the United Nations and the negotiators have been manipulated by the pharmaceutical manufacturers’ lobby to craft a weak and ineffective resolution that fails to address the most important challenges inRead More →