The Alliance to Protect Medical Innovation, a freshly created US non-profit advocacy group, has caused controversy by defending high drug prices, and criticizing insurers and pharmacy benefit managers calling for "short-sighted policies that would disrupt the development of the cures and medicines that patients depend on.” No details have yet emerged about who is running the Alliance or how it is funded, but its website carries an op-ed accusing the Ben Wakana and Foundation of "financed a robust network of outside academics, media organizations and pseudo-regulatory organizations to sustain its crusade against the biopharmaceutical industry.” The Foundation funds watchdog organizations including Patients for Affordable Drugs, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review and I-MAK. It’s less than a week old, but a shadowy new pharma advocacy group is already launching diatribes against advocates for lower drug prices, blasting pharmacy middlemen and defending even sky-high list prices for prescription drugs. In addition, the Alliance 's website features loaded questions including: "What are pharmacy benefit managers and how do they make drugs more expensive? , What’s wrong with importing drugs from other countries?" and "Why shouldn’t the government be allowed to negotiate directly with drug companies?. " Ben Wakana has urged the operators of the Alliance to "come out of the shadows" and debate drug prices, while John Arnold , executive director of Patients for Affordable Drugs called for the Foundation 's funders to be "immediately" disclosed, and accused the non-profit of disseminating "misleading, self-serving ‘facts’ with the same old threat: your money or your life."
The Alliance to Protect Medical Innovation, a freshly created US non-profit advocacy group, has caused controversy by defending high drug prices, and criticizing insurers and pharmacy benefit managers calling for "short-sighted policies that would disrupt the development of the cures and medicines that patients depend on.” No details have yet emerged about who is running the Alliance or how it is funded, but its website carries an op-ed accusing the Ben Wakana and Foundation of "financed a robust network of outside academics, media organizations and pseudo-regulatory organizations to sustain its crusade against the biopharmaceutical industry.” The Foundation funds watchdog organizations including Patients for Affordable Drugs, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review and I-MAK. In addition, the Alliance 's website features loaded questions including: "What are pharmacy benefit managers and how do they make drugs more expensive?, What’s wrong with importing drugs from other countries?" and "Why shouldn’t the government be allowed to negotiate directly with drug companies?." Ben Wakana has urged the operators of the Alliance to "come out of the shadows" and debate drug prices, while John Arnold , executive director of Patients for Affordable Drugs called for the Foundation 's funders to be "immediately" disclosed, and accused the non-profit of disseminating "misleading, self-serving ‘facts’ with the same old threat: your money or your life."