Press Releases
Editorials
News Articles

Press Releases

November 8, 2005

Consumer Coalition Vows to Push Californian Lawmakers to Enact Prescription Drug Price Relief Following Vote on Props. 78 & 79
Following a contentious campaign marked by record spending by the pharmaceutical industry, Californians today voted down both Prop 78 and Prop 79, the dueling prescription drug discount measures on the November 8 ballot. The coalition of consumer, senior, and health groups sponsoring Prop 79 announced that they intend to renew their push for a prescription drug discount plan when the state legislature reconvenes next year........(read more)

October 31, 2005

Feinstein, Boxer & Pelosi Urge Californians to Support Prop. 79
Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein along with Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi are urging California voters to vote “yes” on Prop. 79, the enforceable prescription drug discount measure sponsored by consumer, senior, and health groups. The three senior leaders in California ’s congressional delegation all oppose Prop. 78, the voluntary discount program backed by the pharmaceutical industry.........(read more)

October 18, 2005

Communities of Color Unite Behind Prop. 79 & Say NO to Drug Companies' Big Money Campaign
Organizations and lawmakers representing communities of color urged California voters today to approve Prop. 79, the enforceable prescription drug discount measure sponsored by consumer, senior, and health groups. The advocates emphasized that low and moderate income people of color stand to benefit greatly from Prop. 79 and won’t be misled by the drug companies’ $80 million campaign........(read more)

September 28, 2005

'YES on 79' Launches First TV Ad Vs. $78 Million Drug Industry Ad-Blitz
On the heels of the American Association of Retired Persons' (AARP) endorsement of California's Proposition 79 earlier today, advocates representing millions of California consumers, senior citizens, patients, and workers in the 'Yes on Proposition 79' campaign will unveil their first television commercial for the campaign's drug discount ballot measure in a press conference and commercial screening in Los Angeles, Thursday, September 29th at 11:00am.......(read more)

September 14, 2005

Over 100 Consumer, Health, and Senior Organizations Launch Prop. 79 Campaign for Cheaper Drugs
Over 100 organizations representing millions of California consumers, seniors, patients, and families have endorsed Proposition 79 and launched their campaign at a news conference in Sacramento today. The coalition supporting the prescription drug discount ballot measure laid out plans for an aggressive grassroots and web-based campaign aimed at mobilizing voters throughout California to support Prop 79 and reject Prop. 78, the pharmaceutical industry-sponsored measure that also will appear on the November 8 ballot.......(read more)

Editorials

October 24, 2005

How to lower the cost of drugs - San Francisco Chronicle
IN THE CENTURY-LONG history of the initiative process in California, rarely have voters faced as confusing -- or as expensive -- a contest as the one between Proposition 78 and Proposition 79 that both appear on the Nov. 8 special-election ballot.........(read more)

October 13, 2005

Conflicting prescriptions - Stockton Record
Propositions 78 and 79 are dueling initiatives in the Nov. 8 special election.
Both involve prescription drugs.
One -- 78 -- is supported by drug companies and opposed by consumer groups.
The other -- 79 -- is supported by consumer groups and opposed by drug companies........(read more)

News Articles

November 5, 2005

Black Politicians Say Mailer Distorts Support - Los Angeles Times
A drug industry-supported campaign, which has been criticized for giving money to people who endorsed its ballot measure, is now under fire for misrepresenting the positions of black politicians.

A mailer paid for by the campaign and headlined "The Black Woman's Guide to California Politics" urges voters to support Proposition 78. The measure would allow drug companies to voluntarily cap prices and avert mandatory caps........(read more)

November 4, 2005

Drug Firms Gave Money to Some Who Endorsed Proposition 78 - Los Angeles Times
The nation's drug makers have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to political leaders and civil rights groups that have endorsed the industry's initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The measure, Proposition 78, would avert state caps on the price of prescription drugs. Those embracing it while taking the industry's money include the conservative Traditional Values Coalition, an emergency-room physician in Los Angeles, the California arm of the NAACP and the Mexican American Political Assn.......(read more)

November 3, 2005

Lawmakers complain about photos on drug company-funded mailer - San Jose Mercury News
A mailer targeting black California voters pictures a dozen prominent black lawmakers next to an endorsement of a prescription drug initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot that some of them strongly oppose.

Two of the lawmakers on Thursday denounced the Proposition 78 mailer, which was sent by a group funded by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, the powerful lobbying organization for the nation's drug companies.......(read more)

November 3, 2005

Lawmakers call brochure on drug initiatives misleading - Oakland Tribune
Some California lawmakers are up in arms about their names and photos being used in a mailer urging voters to support Proposition 78 and oppose Proposition 79 — the opposite of those lawmakers' stances on the dueling prescription-drug measures.......(read more)

October 28, 2005

Big drug companies' Rx for victory - Los Angeles Times
CALIFORNIANS ARE in danger of being rolled by the big drug companies on Nov. 8. On the face of it, the two propositions on the ballot dealing with prescription drug discounts might seem to be different ways to achieve the same goal: lower prices for vulnerable Californians. But in fact, Proposition 78 is a decoy created by the drug companies to draw votes from Proposition 79, which actually would lower prices.......(read more)

October 22, 2005

Prop. 78 backers outspend Prop. 79's - Contra Costa Times
In California, those two states' plans are being held up as examples in the debate over Propositions 78 and 79, dueling drug discount initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot. Both campaigns tout Maine and Ohio as models that California should follow. .......(read more)

October 18, 2005

2 Drug Discount Measures in a Duel - Los Angeles Times
In California, those two states' plans are being held up as examples in the debate over Propositions 78 and 79, dueling drug discount initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot. Both campaigns tout Maine and Ohio as models that California should follow. .......(read more)

October 14, 2005

Propositions 78 and 79: Rival plans target pain of uninsured - Sacramento Bee
Here's what you need to know about Propositions 78 and 79, the drug-discount measures that may end up being at the center of the most expensive ballot initiative campaign in history:

Drug companies are prepared to spend $80 million to persuade voters to approve 78 and defeat 79. Consumer groups, waging a low-budget campaign with mere tens of thousands of dollars, are supporting 79 and opposing 78.......(read more)

October 1, 2005

Prop 79 Backers Plan Ad Contest - Monterey Herald
Proposition 79 supporters unveiled an online contest Friday to create the campaign's next television advertisement to battle the pharmaceutical industry and the $78 million it has raised in opposition to the initiative........(read more)

September 28, 2005

AARP Opposes Prop 78, Endorses Competing Prop 79 - San Francisco Chronicle
The influential senior citizen lobby AARP urged its 3.1 million California members and other voters Wednesday to oppose Proposition 78, which would create a voluntary prescription drug discount program for poor, uninsured state residents........(read more)

September 15, 2005

Campaign for dueling drug measures heats up - Contra Costa Times
The high-stakes battle over rival prescription drug measures on the November ballot shifted into high gear Wednesday as a coalition of consumer, senior and health groups kicked off the Yes on Proposition 79 campaign. For weeks, backers of the competing Proposition 78 have deluged television with advertisements. Backed by the pharmaceutical industry and other groups, Prop. 78 supporters have raised more than $75 million........(read more)

September 8, 2005

An Analysis of Proposition 79 Television Ad - San Jose Mercury News (NOTE: This ad is paid for by Prop 78 supporters, otherwise known as Pharma)
Among the eight initiatives on California's Nov. 8 special election ballot are dueling measures designed to provide discount prescription drugs to California's uninsured - propositions 78 and 79.

Proposition 78 is supported by the drug industry and its chief lobbyist, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Backers released the second in a series of ads over the weekend......(read more)

September 6, 2005

FIELD POLL - San Francisco Chronicle
Two rival initiatives on prescription drugs that pit the pharmaceutical industry against California's most powerful unions are favored by voters, although support for one of the measures drops when voters learn it is backed by drug companies, a Field Poll released today found.......(read more)

August 25 , 2005

Drug Firms Try to Fool Voters - Los Angeles Times
The pharmaceutical industry's campaign to turn California's voter initiative process into its wholly owned subsidiary is moving into full gear.

With the statewide appearance of two television ads financed by a war chest pegged at $60 million (and counting) and aimed at two ballot initiatives concerned with prescription drug prices, it's timely to consider what we're getting for the drug companies' money......(read more)

August 22 , 2005

Fight over drug costs picks up in California - San Diego Union Tribune
California's high-stakes initiative battle over dueling prescription drug discount programs is part of a nationwide movement to give the uninsured relief from the skyrocketing price of drugs......(read more)

August 16 , 2005

Drug industry launches campaign ads on television - San Francisco Chronicle
The drug industry launched a television advertising blitz as part of a drug pricing battle that has already become the costliest ballot issue in California election history......(read more)

August 14 , 2005

Drugmakers shell out millions to influence Calif. vote - USA Today
Drugmakers have ponied up $72 million to try to defeat a California ballot initiative to extend drug discounts to more uninsured people and get their discount plan passed instead......(read more)

August 8 , 2005

Calif. Drug Proposals Spark Huge Campaigns - Newsday.com
The soaring price of prescription drugs has led federal and state lawmakers to seek ways to ease the burden on uninsured residents. But in California, the land of direct democracy, drug companies and consumer groups are going straight to the voters with dueling initiatives in one of the costliest campaigns in U.S. history......(read more)

August 7 , 2005

Maine, Ohio leading way in state drug discount plans - Sacramento Bee
You can expect to hear a lot about Maine and Ohio in the upcoming special election battle between the pharmaceutical industry and consumer groups over discount drugs for uninsured Californians.

The drug companies, having raised a whopping $72 million so far for their campaign, want to convince Californians to vote for their prescription-discount plan, Proposition 78. They say it is modeled on Ohio's Best Rx, a program that has been operating in that state since January......(read more)

August 2 , 2005

2005 Political Fundraising at $116 Million - Los Angeles Times
National drug firms supporting Prop. 78 on the fall ballot lead the way in candidates' and causes' efforts to build war chests.
Led by national drug companies that have poured $58.5 million into an initiative fight with national implications, promoters and candidates have raised more than $116 million they can use in campaigns this year and beyond......(read more)

August 1 , 2005

Drug companies court California's uninsured voters - Sacramento Bee
It looks a lot like a prescription-drug ad: With a montage of active people in colorful settings playing across the screen, a woman's soothing voice intones, "We're making medicine more affordable." But instead of pushing a particular brand-name medication, an ad now playing in major media markets across California is publicizing discounts that drug companies offer to the low-income uninsured......(read more)

July 25, 2005

Drug Firms' $50-Million California Prescription - Los Angeles Times
The pharmaceutical industry, the business of which is ostensibly to make us healthy while making healthier profits for itself, is prepared to spend well more than $50 million to teach Californians what's good for us.....(read more)

July 18, 2005

Showdown of dueling drug measures is pricey - Contra Costa Times
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called a November special election last month to push several initiatives aimed at reshaping state government.

But the fall ballot's costliest political skirmish so far has nothing to do with the governor's "year of reform" political agenda.....(read more)

July 17, 2005

Lots of cash for ballot clash - Sacramento Bee
Drug firms spend big to beat one plan, boost own
The chief executives of many of the nation's largest drug companies met in a closed session to discuss political strategy at the May gathering of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association......(read more)

July 14, 2005

Drug Companies Collect $43 Million For Special Election Fight - KXTV 10 News
Fundraising numbers for dueling drug initiatives on the November 8 special election ballot show California is shaping up for a possible record-breaking, David vs. Goliath battle between drug companies and state labor and consumer groups......(read more)

Watch the Video of the Story

July 13, 2005

Drug firms arming for battle at ballot box - San Francisco Chronicle
$43 million in past month alone given to fight stringent prescription discounts
In the past month, drug companies from across the nation have raised more than $43 million to challenge a union-backed initiative on the Nov. 8 special election ballot that would cut prescription drug prices for a wide range of California residents.....(read more)

July 10, 2005

Canada's prescription drug rates lose luster - San Diego Union Tribune
Last year, many state Democrats and consumer advocates saw Canada as the promised land for cheap prescription drugs. So why didn't they even flinch when Canada's health minister recently announced plans to restrict the flow of drugs to the United States?....(read more)