To the editor:

When it comes to the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs, one thing is clear: Big Pharma is the root of the problem. For decades, the pharmaceutical industry has wielded its power to drive up costs, manipulate markets, and protect its profits–all at the expense of hardworking American families and businesses. Now, Big Pharma is pushing policies in Congress that would further entrench its dominance and profits by deepening the financial burden on employers and everyday Americans.

A coordinated attack on the private healthcare market is at the heart of this agenda. By targeting pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), advocating for mandated pass-through policies, eliminating market-driven incentives like pay-for-performance, and even taking away options that employers value when it comes to designing their pharmacy benefits, small businesses would lose the ability to design pharmacy benefits that meet the needs of their employees, driving up health care costs while padding drug companies’ pockets–adding an estimated $22 billion in profits for Big Pharma while hiking premiums by $26 billion annually in the commercial health insurance market.

Make no mistake: this is not about lowering prices or improving care. It’s about power and profits. Big Pharma wants to eliminate the private sector’s ability to negotiate better prices, all while maintaining its grip on the drug pricing system it created–one rife with anti-competitive practices, patent abuse, and an outrageous reliance on direct-to-consumer advertising. Big Pharma’s self-serving agenda undermines the free-market principles that Republicans have long championed. It strips employers of the ability to craft tailored, cost-effective healthcare plans for their employees while undermining pay-for-performance initiatives that ensure value and accountability in the healthcare market.

These moves are part of a broader effort to block reforms that would hold Big Pharma accountable for its egregious pricing practices. Big Pharma alone sets the initial price of drugs, inflating prices by blocking competition through patent abuse.

Drug companies then spend billions of dollars annually on direct-to-consumer advertising, promoting expensive brand-name drugs–even when safer, cheaper alternatives exist. This advertising frenzy, unique to the U.S. and New Zealand, fuels overprescription and drives up healthcare costs.

Pharmaceutical companies have aggressively lobbied against President Trump’s historic efforts to lower drug prices and have sought to undermine RFK Jr.’s pledge to crack down on these harmful practices. Big Pharma isn’t just a threat to the free market; it’s a direct threat to Americans’ pocketbooks. As President Trump said in 2020, “The drug companies don’t like me too much, but we had to do it.” Indeed, Trump’s efforts to lower drug prices and increase transparency were met with fierce resistance from the very companies now asking Congress for new mandates that would enrich them further.

If lawmakers allow Big Pharma to succeed in its latest push, the consequences will be devastating. There will be higher premiums for employers and employees, reduced flexibility for small businesses to design benefits that work for their teams, and further concentration of power in the hands of drug companies that have already shown they prioritize profits over patients.

Republicans in Congress must reject these government mandates and focus instead on holding Big Pharma accountable. That means strengthening market-based incentives, protecting the role of PBMs in negotiating savings, and cracking down on anti-competitive practices like patent abuse and excessive advertising.

RFK Jr. and President Trump have an opportunity to do what Big Pharma fears most: hold drug companies accountable, foster competition, and lower costs for American families. This isn’t just smart policy–it’s a moral imperative. The American people are tired of paying the price for Big Pharma’s greed. They’re tired of seeing drug companies rake in billions while small businesses and families struggle to make ends meet. And they’re tired of empty promises that fail to deliver real relief.

Now is the time for Congress to stand firm against Big Pharma’s money grab. Reject the mandates being pushed by the Left and drug companies. Protect market-based solutions. And put the interests of American families and the free market ahead of drug company profits.

John Morrow,

Former Wellsville City Councilman

Former Wellsville Board of Education member