ICYMI: Golden Calls Out Corporate Greed Behind New TV Ads on Rx Drugs

Rep. Golden in Bangor Daily News: Don't Be Fooled by Big Pharma

LEWISTON — In case you missed it, Congressman Jared Golden (ME-02) took to the pages of the Bangor Daily News on Friday to pull back the curtain on a set of misleading political TV ads currently running in Maine. In the op-ed, Golden shows that the misleading ads —which are intended to scare Mainers into opposing popular, common-sense measures to lower prescription drug prices — are funded by a dark money group whose top known contributors include the nation's biggest pharmaceutical companies.

Don't be fooled by Big Pharma when it comes to lowering drug prices

Rep. Jared Golden (ME-02)

"Hardly six months have gone by since Election Day, but corporate interests are once again flooding our TV screens with misleading, negative political ads. This time it's the pharmaceutical companies and their allies, who are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to warn you about a ‘socialist drug takeover' or American drugs ‘marching straight through Beijing.' In the ads, a dark and ominous voice tells you there's a dangerous plan to seize the drug market and that you should call on me, your congressman in the 2nd District, to oppose it.

"It's not the first time Big Pharma has used these scare tactics. Drug companies have grown used to year after year of sky-high profitswhile they jack upthe price of medications like insulinon working Americans. These companies have a good thing going, and they want to protect it.That's why they spend millions every year to lobby Congress and stage massive advertising campaigns designed to scare, mislead and distract Americans from the fact that their prescription prices keep going up and up, just like drug company profits.

"So with that in mind, let's pull back the curtain and see what's really behind these TV ads."

Read the rest of the op-ed here.

Congressman Golden has made lowering prescription drug prices for Mainers a top priority. Last month, he and three other representatives led a group of over 80 lawmakers calling on the Biden Administration to allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for America's seniors and use the savings generated to lower the eligibility age for Medicare to 60. Last Congress, he cosponsored and voted to pass H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act. One of the first bills he introduced when he came to Congress was the FLAT Prices Act, which would help lower drug costs by punishing pharmaceutical companies for abusive price hikes and limiting monopoly periods to encourage competition from generics.