Drug Pricing

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How do price controls damage innovation?

What role do intellectual property laws play in encouraging innovation? They are absolutely essential. IP protections like patents reward those who succeed in creating new medicines and ushering them through the regulatory approval process. They do this by guaranteeing that the IP rights holder behind a new drug will have ...
Commentary

The real story behind Trump’s GLP-1 price cut: Markets still rule

President Donald Trump just announced deals with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that will yield lower prices for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs dispensed through Medicare and Medicaid. Both firms have also agreed to sell the drugs at lower prices on Trump’s yet-to-be-developed online marketplace for prescription drugs, TrumpRx. Lilly and ...
Commentary

Why reforming PBMs is the key to lowering drug costs

If lawmakers want to make pharmaceuticals more affordable, they should look past populist policies like price controls that will only make matters worse and set their sights on reforming the Pharmacy Benefit Manager market. PBMs manage the drug benefits for insurers and negotiate discounts with drug manufacturers. You probably use ...
Commentary

How Competition Drives Healthcare Innovation & Affordability

Making healthcare more affordable requires reforms that strengthen competitive markets, as I outlined in a recent Pacific Research Institute1 paper. Unfortunately, as we’re seeing in California and elsewhere, the trend in government is away from competition and toward fewer choices, hurting patients and increasing costs. When applied to other industries, ...
Blog

How did the US become the world’s center of pharmaceutical innovation?

What kinds of policies helped the US surpass Great Britain to become the world’s center of pharmaceutical innovation? I think it was a combination of shrewd reforms on the part of the United States, and self-destructive reforms on the part of Europe and other developed nations. In the 1970s, Europe ...
Commentary

Trade Policy Is The Right Way To Fight Foreign Freeloading

Last week, the United States and the United Kingdom announced a trade deal that will require Britain’s National Health Service to pay more for novel prescription drugs in exchange for a reprieve of at least three years from tariffs on its pharmaceutical exports. It’s a perfect example of how the ...
Commentary

Competition, not price controls, just slashed GLP-1 prices

Novo Nordisk just announced price cuts for Ozempic and Wegovy, whose list prices as recently as last year were around $1,000 a month. Patients buying directly from the manufacturer will be able to pay as little as $349 for a monthly dose of these medicines. The company has also dropped ...
Commentary

A Healthy Dose Of Competition Sends Weight-Loss Drug Prices Plummeting

Prices for GLP-1 weight-loss medications are dropping fast. Last week, Novo Nordisk—maker of Ozempic and Wegovy—announced it would cut prices for monthly supplies of both drugs to as low as $349 for existing patients buying directly. For new customers, the price will fall to just $199 a month for the ...
Commentary

PBMs’ Evolving Business Model Continues To Raise Costs On Patients

The conclusion of the longest government shutdown in history and rising political acrimony rightly receives a great deal of attention but this focus makes it easy to overlook areas where beneficial legislation is politically possible. The broad political agreement that it is necessary to reform how pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) ...
340B

340B Drug Pricing Program Overdue for Reform, GOP Can Help

Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing in October to discuss a federal healthcare policy long overdue for reform — the 340B Drug Pricing Program. Created to expand access to affordable medicines for low-income people, 340B has since fallen victim to rampant abuse by ...
Blog

How do price controls damage innovation?

What role do intellectual property laws play in encouraging innovation? They are absolutely essential. IP protections like patents reward those who succeed in creating new medicines and ushering them through the regulatory approval process. They do this by guaranteeing that the IP rights holder behind a new drug will have ...
Commentary

The real story behind Trump’s GLP-1 price cut: Markets still rule

President Donald Trump just announced deals with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that will yield lower prices for GLP-1 weight-loss drugs dispensed through Medicare and Medicaid. Both firms have also agreed to sell the drugs at lower prices on Trump’s yet-to-be-developed online marketplace for prescription drugs, TrumpRx. Lilly and ...
Commentary

Why reforming PBMs is the key to lowering drug costs

If lawmakers want to make pharmaceuticals more affordable, they should look past populist policies like price controls that will only make matters worse and set their sights on reforming the Pharmacy Benefit Manager market. PBMs manage the drug benefits for insurers and negotiate discounts with drug manufacturers. You probably use ...
Commentary

How Competition Drives Healthcare Innovation & Affordability

Making healthcare more affordable requires reforms that strengthen competitive markets, as I outlined in a recent Pacific Research Institute1 paper. Unfortunately, as we’re seeing in California and elsewhere, the trend in government is away from competition and toward fewer choices, hurting patients and increasing costs. When applied to other industries, ...
Blog

How did the US become the world’s center of pharmaceutical innovation?

What kinds of policies helped the US surpass Great Britain to become the world’s center of pharmaceutical innovation? I think it was a combination of shrewd reforms on the part of the United States, and self-destructive reforms on the part of Europe and other developed nations. In the 1970s, Europe ...
Commentary

Trade Policy Is The Right Way To Fight Foreign Freeloading

Last week, the United States and the United Kingdom announced a trade deal that will require Britain’s National Health Service to pay more for novel prescription drugs in exchange for a reprieve of at least three years from tariffs on its pharmaceutical exports. It’s a perfect example of how the ...
Commentary

Competition, not price controls, just slashed GLP-1 prices

Novo Nordisk just announced price cuts for Ozempic and Wegovy, whose list prices as recently as last year were around $1,000 a month. Patients buying directly from the manufacturer will be able to pay as little as $349 for a monthly dose of these medicines. The company has also dropped ...
Commentary

A Healthy Dose Of Competition Sends Weight-Loss Drug Prices Plummeting

Prices for GLP-1 weight-loss medications are dropping fast. Last week, Novo Nordisk—maker of Ozempic and Wegovy—announced it would cut prices for monthly supplies of both drugs to as low as $349 for existing patients buying directly. For new customers, the price will fall to just $199 a month for the ...
Commentary

PBMs’ Evolving Business Model Continues To Raise Costs On Patients

The conclusion of the longest government shutdown in history and rising political acrimony rightly receives a great deal of attention but this focus makes it easy to overlook areas where beneficial legislation is politically possible. The broad political agreement that it is necessary to reform how pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) ...
340B

340B Drug Pricing Program Overdue for Reform, GOP Can Help

Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing in October to discuss a federal healthcare policy long overdue for reform — the 340B Drug Pricing Program. Created to expand access to affordable medicines for low-income people, 340B has since fallen victim to rampant abuse by ...
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