Innovation

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On this page, you’ll find the Center’s analysis on how free-market policies can better balance the competing interests of medical innovation and competition. Here, you’ll find our research and commentary on such issues as patents, research and development spending, and reforms that will promote more robust competition.

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August 3, 2026 Blog, Innovation

PRI Celebrates Victory After Filing Amicus Brief in Landmark Gilead Case The Pacific Research Institute – the non-partisan, California-based, free-market think tank – today hailed a landmark California Supreme Court decision protecting future medical innovation. The ruling in the Gilead Tenofir Cases overturns a lower court decision that threatened to expose pharmaceutical innovators to sweeping new liability for decisions about the timing of the development of future medicines. In November 2024, PRI filed an amicus curiae brief in the case in support of Gilead, arguing that allowing the...

June 22, 2026 Innovation, Policy Proposals, Price and Costs

International drug price comparisons often create more confusion than clarity. One reason: they ignore the large drug access problems that exist in the comparator countries, such as Canada and the U.K. Lost access to drugs raises other health spending and reduces health outcomes. Another fundamental problem is these comparisons rely on U.S. medicines’ gross (or list) price. But list prices do not account for the complex U.S. drug supply chain, where manufacturers receive only a portion of the gross price and...

May 22, 2026 Innovation

For progressives, the answer to every healthcare problem is invariably the same: more government. First came Obamacare. Now, some on the Left are trying to take the next step toward socialized medicine — “free” primary care for all. A new report from the Searchlight Institute, authored by several architects of the Affordable Care Act, urges Democratic policymakers to guarantee primary care with no out-of-pocket costs at the point of service. It sounds compassionate. But making something “free” does not magically create more...

March 16, 2026 Innovation, Issues

A left-leaning pressure group recently sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asking his agency to rescind the patent rights earned by the developers of GLP-1 drugs. Some 12% of U.S. adults have taken these medications. Rescinding the patents is a dangerous idea that would reduce our health and well-being. GLP-1 medications benefit patients with various conditions. They have become a popular weight loss drug that suppresses people’s appetites and helps patients living with Type 2...

July 30, 2025 Innovation, Price and Costs

The flaws driving up costs across the broader health care landscape are also driving up the costs for innovative drugs. After all, pharmaceuticals are an integral component used in combination with the broader healthcare system. As a result, spending on medicines both influences and is influenced by the spending on all other healthcare services. Evaluating the total amount of spending on drugs as a share of total healthcare spending provides important perspective, consequently. As Drug Channels notes, “total net drug spending...

May 7, 2025 Innovation, Issues, Price and Costs

Read comments submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce by Sally C. Pipes, PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy, arguing against the imposition of tariffs on pharmaceuticals as part of the Department's examination of pharmaceutical imports and their relevance to U.S. national security interests. Click here to download a copy of Pipes' comments Thank you for inviting public input on the Department's Section 232 examination of pharmaceutical imports and their relevance to U.S. national security interests. As...

April 20, 2025 Innovation, Issues

Surveys confirm that most Americans recognize the value of prescription drugs. But the same surveys also show that Americans are worried that they will be unable to afford needed medicines. These conflicting feelings exemplify the inherent tension when it comes to prescription drugs – how do we incentivize innovation to help patients who lack efficacious treatments while also promoting greater affordability for medicines today? Too often, proposals get this balance between innovation and affordability wrong. Read the entire op-ed. ...

April 7, 2025 Innovation, Issues

Rising demand for long-term care is inevitable as more and more baby boomers retire. Meeting this demand will be a challenge. Recent evidence from the PACE program demonstrates that for-profit care providers can help meet this growing demand, but only if the regulatory environment allows it. Read the entire op-ed here....

March 24, 2025 Blog, Innovation, Price and Costs

An analysis by the American First Policy Institute released today correctly notes that the drug price controls most OECD countries impose on innovative medicines jeopardize future innovations. Yet, while correctly diagnosing their high cost, the authors still recommend that price controls should be imposed on U.S. patients. Adopting such a policy will worsen health outcomes while potentially raising overall healthcare spending even more. The cost of capital for developing a new drug is $2.9 billion, including post approval research and development costs. Meanwhile, the...

February 5, 2025 Briefs, Innovation, Price and Costs, Studies

READ THE PDF A California appellate court invented out of whole cloth a new and troubling theory of tort liability. Specifically, the court held that drug companies have a duty to develop and bring to market drugs that are supposedly safer and more effective than another, FDA-approved drug the company sells already. The claim rested on factual premises contradicted by all publicly available information, the acceptance of which could seriously disrupt the FDA approval process. This disruption gives rise to an...

January 22, 2025 Innovation, Issues

CMS recently announced the next 15 drugs that will be subject to price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). These are negotiations in name only because CMS can levy penalties on any manufacturer that fails to comply with the process. Since the penalties include an excise tax up to 95% of a drugs total U.S. sales revenue, the law essentially empowers CMS to set its desired prices (e.g. price controls). Price controls discourage R&D spending. With less investment...

January 7, 2025 Briefs, Innovation, Price and Costs, Studies

READ THE PDF Executive Summary Reforms that will strengthen the biosimilar market and expand savings opportunities include: Reforming (ideally repealing) the Inflation Reduction Act’s price control measures. Improving the incentives underlying the current buy-and-bill system to better align the financial incentives of providers, payers, and patients. Promoting greater transparency to the opaque drug rebating system including addressing the rebate wall problem through comprehensive reform or prohibiting the anti-competitive rebating practices that are generally outlawed in other markets. Given biosimilars’ demonstrated ability to...

December 2, 2024 Briefs, Innovation, Price and Costs, Studies

READ THE PDF Executive Summary The Inflation Reduction Act’s price controls discourage biosimilar development. Payment system inefficiencies, such as the buy-and-bill payment system and rebate walls, disincentivize the use of lower cost biosimilars. Despite the savings biosimilars have already enabled, there are barriers to further progress. First, the price controls from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) disincentivize biosimilar development. Second, the convoluted pricing system discourages greater use of lower cost alternatives. How the payment system disincentivizes their use varies depending on whether...

November 7, 2024 Innovation

The Pacific Research Institutehas filed an amicus curiae brief in a case before the California Supreme Court that has the potential to devastate innovation in future life-saving medications. The Gilead Tenofovir Cases surround questions of the liability of pharmaceutical companies over their decisions on drug development timelines. In the case, the plaintiffs filed cases against the Gilead pharmaceutical company over the company’s failure to bring an alternative medication used to treat AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases to the marketplace called TAF under...

October 28, 2024 Briefs, Innovation, Price and Costs, Studies

READ THE PDF Executive Summary Since 2019, biosimilars have obtained a majority share of most markets where they compete. The combination of lower prices (both biosimilar and originator) and rising market share could have generated up to $35 billion in savings in 2024 dollars compared to an all-originator baseline based on PRI’s latest analysis. These savings demonstrate that, just like with small molecule medicines, biosimilars strike a beneficial balance between incentivizing innovation and promoting affordability. Lower-cost Biosimilars Are Gaining Market Share The share...

October 9, 2024 Innovation, Multimedia, Policy Proposals, Price and Costs

Low-cost biosimilars generated $19 billion in savings value in today’s dollars in 2023. But obstacles in the current drug pricing system meant that billions of dollars in potential savings were left unrealized. Join the Pacific Research Institute’s Center for Medical Economics and Innovation and panel of experts for a brief, informative webinar discussing how potential reforms can improve competition, generate more savings, and better serve patients and taxpayers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m7lNXr_dAw...

October 1, 2024 Briefs, Innovation, Studies

READ THE PDF Executive Summary In the competitive biologic markets, biosimilars have reduced average prices by 56 percent. The lower prices have reduced total expenditures by 51 percent in the competitive biologic markets even though total use is higher. Developing biosimilars is a long and costly endeavor that can take up to 9 years and $300 million. Market conditions should encourage uptake and appropriate reimbursement for physicians and manufacturers. Biologics – innovative medicines made, or derived, from biological processes – treat devastating...

September 18, 2024 Innovation, Price and Costs

In a patently politicized press release, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who is  Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, claims that the U.S. price of Ozempic is too high. As evidence, he cites generic companies that claim they can sell Ozempic for less than $100 a month, an inherently flawed JAMA study that claims that these same diabetes drugs can be profitably produced for less than $5 a month, and inaccurate price comparisons with other countries. Debunking...

August 26, 2024 Innovation

The ill effects from abusive lawsuits are well documented and include higher costs for consumers, reduced economic output, and diminished innovation. The adverse impacts on innovation are particularly troubling. Not only is continued invention necessary for expanding our prosperity, but it is also key for mitigating problems such as global climate change or finding new technologies and treatments for troubling health conditions....