Input Stories

President Trump signed an executive order imposing price controls on pharmaceuticals (The Wall Street Journal, subscription).

“Most favored nation”: Most favored nation pricing would peg certain U.S. drug prices to the lowest price paid by a peer country—even though the state-run health care systems of America’s competitors in the OECD are not directly comparable to the United States’ innovative private-sector model, as we explained last week in response to price control legislation introduced in the Senate.

The NAM says: “Biopharmaceutical manufacturers are investing in America,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons. “They are innovating cures and treatments for devastating diseases, and they are committed to ensuring that patients can access these life-changing and lifesaving medicines.”

• “Obstacles to innovation abound. It costs more than $2 billion to bring a new treatment to market, and it can take more than a decade to do so. Nearly 90% of all potential drugs that enter clinical trials never make it to FDA approval, and unregulated middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers drive up the costs of any drugs that are approved. Despite these challenges, biopharmaceutical manufacturers in America are leading the world.”

A better way: “Manufacturers agree with President Trump that it is vital that Americans have affordable access to lifesaving treatments. That’s why the NAM has for years called on Congress to rein in PBMs. These powerful actors dictate what Americans pay at the pharmacy counter and drive rising health care costs for manufacturers and manufacturing workers alike,” Timmons continued.

• “Importing European-style price controls won’t help Americans access medicines or make them cheaper. Rather, these policies will dampen innovation and R&D, threaten patient access and empower bureaucrats abroad to undermine America’s health system.”

Calling on Congress: “Manufacturers are committed to lowering costs and expanding access to care—and to working with the administration to build on the PBM reforms in the Energy and Commerce Committee’s reconciliation bill with patient-first solutions that reduce costs, restore fairness and strengthen American competitiveness,” Timmons concluded.