PhRMA launches ad campaign targeting 340B drug discount program

Modern Healthcare – Wednesday, September 3, 2025
By Hayley DeSilva

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a drugmaker lobbying group, has launched an advertisement campaign that takes aim at the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

The campaign’s message is that nonprofit hospitals’ expanded use and abuse of the program lead to significant markups on drug costs for patients, employers and taxpayers, according to a Wednesday news release. The video ad also closes with a call to action for viewers to “tell Congress to fix 340B.”

The 30-second YouTube video that launched the campaign, ‘Meet Mark,’ takes place in the patient billing department of a fictional hospital that participates in the 340B program. Characters in the video revel in the profits gained from hiking up the cost of drugs.

The video also made a jab at hospital acquisitions, a trend that has ebbed and flowed over the past few years, with two characters discussing how “buying up small hospitals” will allow for “more medicines to mark up.”

PhRMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment about which markets the campaign will target, what other media channels it might use, how many people it aims to reach, or whether future installments are planned.

PhRMA has long criticized hospitals’ practices under the 340B program, alleging that they purchase medicines at discounted prices but charge patients unaffordable rates. On its website, the group also claims that hospitals fail to reinvest program savings into patient care.

The American Hospital Association has rejected these claims and called out a lack of drug company oversight as the larger issue.

“Policymakers should reject the baseless claims made by drug companies of widespread program abuse by 340B hospitals and urge the Health Resources and Services Administration to increase their audits of drug companies,” the organization said in a June report. “Greater oversight of these drug companies is necessary to ensure the continued success of the 340B program for the millions of vulnerable patients and communities nationwide who rely on it.”

Access this article at its original source.