Access! 2018 emphasized the power that member companies have when they work together for advocacy.
“We are the underdogs,” President and CEO Chip Davis declared in his remarks. In the face of massive buyer consortiums and brand-name pharmaceutical manufacturers with far greater financial resources than AAM and its members as well as state and federal policymakers who prioritize politics over sound policy, AAM members need to “do a better job of telling our story. When we don’t, we’re ceding the authority to others to define our side of the ecosystem in ways that are positive to them.”
Chip urged the executives of member companies to engage proactively with state and federal legislators to help them understand the value proposition of generics and biosimilars and how our business model differs from that of the brand-name manufacturers.
“We have 90 percent of the market share versus the brand-name industry, but in terms of mind share those ratios are flipped, and they leverage that mind share very effectively.”
He described how Big Pharma deflects attention away from itself, pointing fingers at insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and hospitals.
Chip vowed that AAM’s staff “will continue to fight every single day to advance our priority issues and to make sure our value proposition is understood…. Otherwise, we’re not going to deliver results, we’re going to live with results.”
As Chip reminded attendees, hundreds of millions of patients here in the U.S. and around the world rely on AAM member companies to provide safe, effective and affordable medicine.
“There is nothing we can’t do, because we’re on the right side.”
- See pictures from Access! 2018 on the AAM Facebook page.
- View a highlights reel of clips from Access! 2018.
- Read Recap of Access! 2018 — Successes From the Past Year (Part 1)
By Rachel Schwartz, AAM Communications Director