June 26, 2018

Activists, Organizers and Advocates Gather to Fight Big Pharma

June 26, 2018

Activists, Organizers and Advocates Gather to Fight Big Pharma

U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Tina Smith, and U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett, Jan Schakowsky, Ro Khanna and Peter Welch to Speak at Affordable Medicines Now Conference, June 27-29

WHAT: A conference for grassroots organizers and civil society advocates to mobilize and build power to defeat Big Pharma. This comes as pharmaceutical corporations are making lifesaving medications increasingly unaffordable, prompting consumers and policymakers alike to seek solutions.

More than 100 advocates, organizers and lawmakers from around the country will gather to strategize and forge a path to affordable medicines. Speakers will explore the intersection of universal health care and access to medicines, explain how to build power and gain momentum for action on affordable medicines, and provide an array of perspectives on the movement and industry opposition. Sessions will include a focus on people, power and movements; perspective, strategy and wins; and training, tactics and takeaways.

They will feature:

• Remarks from Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D–Texas), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.);

• Training sessions aimed at building and refining skills in media advocacy, campaign strategy development and coalition organizing; and

• Sessions on countering the pharmaceutical industry’s influence, including “Pharma on the Hill” and “Pharma in your Backyard.”

Public Citizen is hosting this event with the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, a philanthropy established to respond to the need for innovative solutions to the most pressing national and international health concerns, and 20 partner organizations listed in full here. More information about the Affordable Medicines Now Conference is available here.

Watch the conference live on Public Citizen’s Facebook page.

WHEN: 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. EDT daily Wednesday, June 27, through Friday, June 29

WHERE: Georgetown University Law Center, 600 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.

WHO:

• Peter Maybarduk, director, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program

• Justin Mendoza, organizer, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program

• U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)

• U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D–Texas)

• U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)

• U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.)

• U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)

• Illinois State Rep. Will Guzzardi

• Representatives of the 20 other partners groups helping to organize the event

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