By Rosa Mendoza, President and CEO, ALLvanza

Joe Biden is officially the Democratic presidential nominee, all thanks to his moderate reputation. The former vice president trounced over a dozen progressive primary opponents by promising stable, centrist leadership and gradual change.

It is now perplexing that Biden is embracing many of his defeated opponents’ ideas, which Democratic base voters rejected just a few months ago. He established a “unity” task force populated by the most vocal supporters of Bernie Sanders, who lost the primaries resoundingly. This advisory group recently recommended two far-left measures that could inadvertently disrupt many working-class Americans’ access to health care.

The first measure could weaken patent protections, which prevent generic drug manufacturers from copying and selling brand-name medicines developed by rival companies. Inventing a single new treatment costs about $2.6 billion, according to a 2014 Tufts University study. In 2019 alone, the world’s 10 largest pharmaceutical companies spent $82 billion on research and development.

Read more: https://triblive.com/opinion/rosa-mendoza-biden-plans-could-harm-latinx-and-all-americans-medication-access/