Dateline Sacramento — The Prop. 61 Californians for Lower Drug Prices campaign is airing
provocative 15-second ads on social media sites featuring “wanted posters” for six top drug company executives whose corporations
have been found guilty of illegal conduct that often seriously jeopardized the health and lives of elderly nursing home patients and troubled youths.
The ads identify the huge payouts the six drug companies have made to settle allegations of criminal and civil violations
filed by the U.S. Dept. of Justice, the compensation paid to the executives and
the enormous amounts of money each company has spent on the campaign to defeat Prop. 61.
The ads are airing on Facebook, TMZ, the Daily Beast and Politico among other social media sites.
Here are links to the ads: CEO Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson; CEO Kenneth Frazer, Merck; CEO Ian Read, Pfizer; CEO Richard Gonzalez, Abbvie; CEO Brenton Saunders, Allergan; and CEO Robert Bradway, Amgen.
“These ads should make the choice clear to voters,”
said Garry South, chief strategist for the Yes on Prop. 61 campaign. “Are you going to trust Sen. Bernie Sanders, the California Nurses Assn., the AARP and Consumer Watchdog, who strongly back Prop. 61? Or are you going to trust drug companies –convicted of all sorts of illegal behavior –who are now spending$126 million of their ill-gotten gains to lie about Prop. 61?
“The court records alone show these drug companies have the morals of junkyard dogs,” said Mr. South.
“They’ve pleaded guilty to trying to cover up the terrible collateral damage their drugs have caused patients. They’ve lied to steal money from Medicare and MediCal. They’ve paid illegal kickbacks to healthcare providers to encourage them to prescribe their drugs over less expensive alternatives.
“Bottom-line: You can’t trust these companies any further than you can spit. And you know they’ll say anything in their ads to protect their price-gouging business practices. I rest my case.”
Here are the YouTube links to four of the six wanted poster ads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYNmND9cNhs
Mr. Salazar may be contacted at RSalazar@alzamedia.com
