Please feel free to tweak and send this to your elected officials. Please SPEAK UP!

Dear X:

Like millions of other Americans, I’m worried sick about tariffs on prescription drugs made overseas.

Did you know? More than 90% of ALL prescriptions filled in our country are for generic drugs. And 90% of ALL those generic drugs are made outside the US.

Because I have a blood cancer, I must take the chemotherapeutic drug hydroxyurea (HU) every day. Without HU, I face a grave danger of fatal blood clots, as well as progression to leukemia.

HU is vital to the vast majority of the 295,000 Americans suffering from MPN blood cancers. It’s also essential to the 100,000 Americans with sickle cell disorder. And it makes a life-and-death difference in many kinds of oral cancers too.

We all desperately need HU. But not a single dose of HU is made in America. Why? Because the components of this drug, so helpful to hundreds of thousands of patients, are toxic. No U.S. manufacturer wants anything to do with it.

HU comes from China, India, Europe, plus a single factory in Nigeria. Tariffs would make it harder to get AND more expensive. This will mean disability and death for those of us with blood cancers, sickle cell anemia and oral cancers.

HU is just one of the 32,000 generic drugs Virginians need every day. Please stand up for us! Please say NO to tariffs on generic prescription drugs.