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Tell Congress to stop letting drug companies extend patents by testing drugs on children!

We are raising a generation of drugged children. They’re getting drugs for ADHD, for diabetes, for high blood pressure, for asthma, for obesity, and now for high cholesterol. We’re giving them drugs instead of encouraging them to eat a healthy diet, or to leave their computers and televisions and go out and play and get some vigorous exercise.

All that is bad enough. But we’re also allowing international drug companies to create kids’ versions of their most popular high-priced drugs. Not only that, we’re also giving them a financial incentive to do so! We’re letting them extend their drug patents by an extra six months just so they can test those drugs on more children!

Statin drugs aren’t good for adults, but they’re even more damaging for children. Nerve damage. Muscle damage (don’t forget that the heart is a muscle too). Memory loss. Liver enzyme derangement. In some cases even kidney failure.

We can change this rotten legislation. Contact your senators and Congressional representative and ask them to reconsider this law, and stop the financial incentive given to pharmaceutical companies to turn our kids into a new market.

Recipients

  • Your Senators
  • Your Representative

Contact

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Message

Dear [Decision Maker],

I am shocked to learn that in order to spur the study of drugs in children and adolescents, a section of the FDA Modernization Act of 1997 created a financial incentive for pharmaceutical manufacturers to study (and, if possible, win approval for) their products in children: a six-month extension on the drug's patent if they provide acceptable pediatric data on the product.

Pfizer has already won a six-month extension on the patent of its blockbuster drug Lipitor. They're seeking a similar extension in Europe--where they've already created a new, chewable form of Lipitor for kids (chewable like candy).

This is outrageous. Leaving aside the fact that we should be teaching kids to eat healthy diets and get more exercise to prevent heart disease, rather than filling them with drugs that have serious side effects, it's simply unacceptable to offer drug companies another six months of lucrative sales just so they can test their drugs on more children. This law provides huge incentives to drug companies to make a new market our of children--whether they're good for kids or not.

As my voice in Congress, I am asking you--pleading with you--to seriously reconsider this law. It doesn't benefit children. It only makes the richest corporations in the world just a little richer at the expense of our kids.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Address]
[City, State ZIP]