Peter Maybarduk
@maybarduk.bsky.social
Access to medicines director at Public Citizen, board at Medicines Patent Pool. Lawyer (citizen.org/access), songwriter (maybarduk.com). Maia’s dad.
Vax investment should be transparent, especially access terms. CEPI committed $50m to Moderna for Ebola, but has not published the terms. CEPI “should be judged above all by its access mission, because that is what distinguishes it from a conventional innovation fund.” Our comment in The Lancet:
We spoke with WSJ for this excellent piece about African states pushing back against Trump’s extractive deals. "Public Citizen, a Washington-based consumer group, has sued the State Department in an effort to force release of the details. The federal suit is pending.” www.wsj.com/world/africa...
Trump Wants Minerals, Health Data for Aid. African Nations Are Pushing Back.
Governments bridle at U.S. demands for private medical data and, in some cases, access to minerals.
wsj.com
New report on the impacts of a PhRMA push to delay the time before a drug's price could be negotiated in Medicare: www.citizen.org/article/epic...
EPIC Act Would Be A Multi-Billion Dollar Pharma Windfall At The Expense of Seniors - Public Citizen
Key takeaways: Big Pharma is pushing to undermine Medicare drug price negotiation and let corporations price gouge for longer periods,…
citizen.org
Gilead spends a lot of money cultivating an image of allyship with communities affected by HIV. It’s very hard to take that image seriously today.
Melissa Barber@mbarber.bsky.social · 4mo agoToday, MSF is going public with something we've been fighting behind closed doors for months: Gilead will not sell us their new HIV drug, lenacapavir. The sticking point isn't even price, they just refuse to sell. Open letter linked + explainer 🧵1/ www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/gilea...
Where Gilead fails to make its patented drug available, countries have clear cause to overcome the patent monopoly with compulsory licenses that authorize generic competition. We will encourage countries to act.
Melissa Barber@mbarber.bsky.social · 4mo agoToday, MSF is going public with something we've been fighting behind closed doors for months: Gilead will not sell us their new HIV drug, lenacapavir. The sticking point isn't even price, they just refuse to sell. Open letter linked + explainer 🧵1/ www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/gilea...
CNN article: Medicare is a brighter spot, expanding coverage for some patients as part of the November deal, but still doesn’t cover weight-loss drugs for all who might want them. www.cnn.com/2026/03/19/h... Reality: Not clear this Medicare program can even get off the ground!
Off-BALANCE? Trump’s Obesity Drug Demo May Not Live Up To The Hype - Public Citizen
What is the BALANCE Model? On December 23, 2025, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Center announced the BALANCE…
citizen.org
Get a load of this S#$%: Pfizer's CEO said European nations must pay even more for medicines or risk losing their supply. Does he want to hold drugs hostage at the expense of human lives to make a little more money? Pfizer must end this threat & take accountability for its high drug prices!
Pfizer’s CEO said Pharma may “stop supplying” countries that don’t pay more in response to Trump’s threats & pressure campaign. This would be a classic “working failure,” grounds for compulsory license in every patent law. Drugmakers that threaten supply lose monopoly privileges. We wrote Bourla:
Nope Trump hasn't gotten American's the best deals on drug pricing and more State of the Union pharma, health care fact checking: www.citizen.org/article/fact... #healthpolicy
Fact Check: Trump’s State of the Union Drug Pricing Fiction Versus Reality - Public Citizen
Trump Fiction: “I’m also ending the wildly inflated cost of prescription drugs like has never happened before. Other presidents tried…
citizen.org
The White House still has not published any of its deals with drugmakers, making its claims to have lowered prices very difficult to believe. But we know for a fact Trump & GOP gave pharma an $8+ billion payout out of pockets of taxpayers & cancer patients via the Big Ugly Bill.
Don’t Buy Trump’s SOTU Claims on Drug Prices - Public Citizen
In his State of the Union speech, President Trump is expected to tout progress from his administration on lowering drug prices for Americans, but the rhetoric will not match the reality. Here are the ...
citizen.org
People in the U.S. are being charged up to 16x as much as peer countries for the same treatments. This is absurd. As generics manufacturers are expected to begin selling GLP-1s in Canada for less than $100 soon, we're calling on HHS to authorize generic competition for GLP-1 drugs.
Prepping for the State of the Union? Don't be fooled by Trump's misleading claims on drug pricing. #healthpolicy www.citizen.org/article/dont...
Don’t Buy Trump’s SOTU Claims - Public Citizen
In his State of the Union speech, President Trump is expected to tout progress from his administration on lowering drug prices for Americans, but the rhetoric will not match the reality. Here are the ...
citizen.org
Americans pay the highest prescription costs in the world. What are we going to do about it? More from @maybarduk.bsky.social @pcmedsaccess.bsky.social @publiccitizen.bsky.social: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtYj...
What TrumpRx Actually Means for Your Wallet #news #trump
Americans pay the highest prescription costs in the world. What are we going to do about it? More from Peter Maybarduk at @PublicCitizen: https://www.youtube...
youtube.com
TrumpRx Exposed: What It Means for Your Prescriptions #CareTalk live @maybarduk.bsky.social @pcmedsaccess.bsky.social @publiccitizen.bsky.social explores w/ me @healthcarevoices.org @mswmedia.com & Diane @socialsecurityworks.org @louisenorris.bsky.social answer your health insurance q’s
Is TrumpRx a Game-Changer for Prescription Prices? #CareTalk
President Trump recently announced TrumpRx, a new direct-to-consumer website that he claims will lower prescription drug costs in the U.S. What is TrumpRx an...
youtube.com
Most people will do better through insurance than TrumpRx. Many without insurance will not be able to afford the still-high TrumpRx prices. But drugmakers certainly will appreciate Trump’s free product promos, delivered with a false veneer of price accountability. www.politico.com/news/2026/02...
TrumpRx debuts with several dozen discounted drugs
Drug pricing experts have questioned whether the effort would benefit most Americans.
politico.com
Trump says he lowered drug prices. We’ll believe it when we see it. So we sued for access to the secret deals.
Public Citizen@publiccitizen.bsky.social · 6mo agoNEW LAWSUIT: We sued the Trump admin for failing to respond to FOIA requests about the admin’s drug-pricing deals with Pfizer & Eli Lilly. Americans deserve to see these deals, which affect prices that we pay for Rx drugs.
Lenacapavir could sharply cut new HIV infections. But only if people can actually get it. Watch this brief video from @maybarduk.bsky.social on how monopoly power is limiting access, and why World AIDS Day is the moment to demand change. www.instagram.com/p/DRh2CUIjl-Z/
LMAO PhRMA’s long-awaited answer to anger about its prices, which cause rationing & suffering & waste tens of billions in healthcare $$$ is … … a website. To support DTP sales. You would think a trillion-dollar industry that prides itself on innovation could do better. You would be wrong.
Thanks to health leaders Emily Bass, Mitchell Warren, Asia Russell, Amanda Banda, and Isata Dumbuya. And to our event co-hosts UNAIDS, Health GAP, People's Medicines Alliance, UAEM, Treatment Action Group, RESULTS, and Partners In Health.
We had a critical discussion about continuing the fight to bring medicines to all, with the first step being bringing that breakthrough — at that price — to the world. Thanks to UNAIDS' Winnie Byanyima and Unitaid's Tenu Avafia for joining us today and for your leadership.
We are launching a global campaign to make long-acting HIV prevention available to everyone, everywhere. With allies worldwide we will: *Challenge drugmakers’ power & patents; make $40 price available to all countries *Push for ambition from govt, funders to help 10 million+ people access PrEP LA
Public Citizen@publiccitizen.bsky.social · 10mo agoThis week, the world learned that a new HIV prevention drug will be available for $40/year in 120 countries by 2027. Yet millions of people in countries with growing HIV crises still are left out. Today, health groups came together to support access for everyone, everywhere.
State’s Health Strategy is cover for cruelty. While the Pentagon budget balloons to trillion+ dollars w/Trump’s vanity projects, the admin picks out critically underfunded needs of global health for slashing & blames development groups for budgetary waste. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/u...
U.S. to Cut Out Nongovernmental Groups in Refocusing Health Aid
nytimes.com
“The discounts, rebates, and patient assistance that Gilead offers [for LEN PrEP] are based on the underlying high price. If they really wanted to broaden access, they should just lower the list price and everything else would be easier,” says @maybarduk.bsky.social. www.thebody.com/news/hiv/mor...
We Have More PrEP Options Than Ever—But Who Will Be Able To Afford Them?
HIV advocates worry the high sticker price for brand-name PrEP—including long-acting injectables—will limit access, especially as federal support wavers.
thebody.com
Spoke w/ @apnews.com about HIV funding cuts & the risk of losing a threshold moment toward defeating aids, with the approval of long-acting injectables for HIV prevention.
Andrew Green@theandrewgreen.bsky.social · last yr.“We could be ending AIDS. Instead, the U.S. is abandoning the fight.” - @maybarduk.bsky.social via apnews.com/article/hiv-...
The Medicaid cuts in Trump's budget bill are projected to cause more than 16,500 premature deaths ANNUALLY. Over 1.9 MILLION people could lose access to a physician. Over 1.3 MILLION people could go without needed medications. Americans will die for billionaires to thrive.
Africa has ~400x fewer MVA-BN doses per mpox case than the U.S had at the same 9-month point in the 2022-23 emergency. That shortfall limits vax ambition & adds to suffering. WHO just extended the mpox emergency. But Trump's exec orders block USAID support & work w/WHO. Some of what's needed:
Public Citizen@publiccitizen.bsky.social · last yr.WHO says mpox is still an int’l public health emergency. Africa has roughly 400x fewer MVA-BN doses per case than the U.S. Meanwhile, Bavarian Nordic is keeping the vaccine price sky high. This isn't a scarcity crisis - it's a Big Pharma greed-inspired affordability crisis.
Here’s world-class pharma jerk Bourla just casually threatening countries’ meds access if the U.S. seeks less abusive prices at home. The only way to deal with bullies like this is stand up and fight them. www.reuters.com/business/hea...
No drug price pledges by Pfizer, others in talks with US government, Pfizer CEO says
Pfizer and other drug companies have met with the Trump administration to discuss lowering U.S. drug prices but no commitments have been made, Chief Executive Albert Bourla said on Monday.
reuters.com
