Issues
Pelosi’s Drug Price Controls Are Dangerous—But So Are Trump’s
The White House Council of Economic Advisors just issued a damning indictment of a House bill (H.R. 3) designed to lower drug prices. According to White House economists, the measure endorsed by Nancy Pelosi and her fellow House Democrats could prevent the development of 100 new drugs over the next ten years. CEA concluded "the threat [the bill] poses to continued medical innovation will harm American patients in ways that far outweigh any benefits." This analysis is spot-on. That's why it's so surprising that...
China Catches Cold from the Wuhan Coronavirus and the World Sneezes.
The outbreak of infections from a novel virus that appears to have originated in Central China has elicited a storm of commentary, much of it uninformed. Opinions have ranged from predictions of a worldwide apocalypse to dismissal of quarantines and “social distancing” as a kind of public relations stunt by the Chinese government—neither of which is likely to be true. Even at this early and rapidly evolving stage of the outbreak, science can and should inform our actions. I have what...
Feeling the Pain of High Drug Prices? We Prescribe Market Forces
Trump administration officials keep searching for solutions to rising prescription drug prices, which are increasing faster than inflation. “Drug makers and companies are not living up to their commitments on pricing. Not being fair to the consumer, or to our Country!” President Donald Trump tweeted last year. However, it’s hard to know what “fair” prices are. After all, pharmaceutical research and development is expensive and high risk. Bringing a drug to market may take 10 or more years and costs, on average, more than $2.5...
Henry Miller Provides a Wuhan Flu Update on the nationally syndicated Lars Larson Show
Henry Miller joins the nationally syndicated Lars Larson Show to share updates and analysis on the Wuhan flu epidemic that started in China earlier this month. Miller also discusses the preparedness of the United States and other countries in dealing with epidemics. ...
Henry Miller Explains Spread of Wuhan flu outbreak on John Batchelor
Henry Miller shares updates about the latest news on the Wuhan flu outbreak. The first case of the new strand of flu from China was confirmed in the United States this week and the region where the coronavirus originated, near the city of Wuhan in China, has been put under quarantine. ...
Wayne Winegarden Drug Pricing Study Profiled in Healthcare Finance News
Drug supply chain, pricing system reforms will slash healthcare costs, says PRI By Jeff Lagasse As the Trump administration pushes for price caps and government controls to address prescription drug prices, a new issue brief released by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute contends that reforming the complex drug supply chain and ending the current drug pricing system that overcharges patients – along with systemwide reforms – are what's needed to lower America's healthcare costs. Many proposals have been...
Price Controls Impose High Costs On Patients
Twenty-five years ago, the leading cause of death for adults between the ages of 25 and 44 was complications from HIV. At the time, 50,000 Americans were dying from AIDS-related causes a year, with the African American community particularly hard hit – 49 percent of the people dying from AIDS-related deaths were African Americans. Today, thanks to highly active antiretroviral therapies (HAART), along with other medical advances, people with HIV like basketball great Magic Johnson are living longer and healthier lives. And,...
Yes, The FDA Is In Trouble, But The New York Times’ Prescription Would Make It Worse
A recent New York Times editorial about the Food and Drug Administration reflects a systematic weakness at the once-venerable Gray Lady: The members of the editorial board often rely on sloganeering and popular wisdom instead of substantive evidence. The editorial was headlined, “The FDA Is in Trouble. Here’s How to Fix It.” The agency is in trouble. But it’s due to the very kinds of “fixes” the Times recommends. The FDA is highly bureaucratic and risk averse, leading to a slow and expensive drug approval...
High-Tech Gets The Headlines But Low-Tech Can Cut Health Care Costs And Save Lives
Much of the progress in medicine during the past half-century has involved expensive, high-tech diagnostic tests and therapies. The trend in this direction worries health economists and politicians because it has the potential to send already high health care costs into the stratosphere. Health care spending in 2017 reached $3.5 trillion, or a whopping 17.9% of the nation’s gross domestic product, according to government statistics. However, there is an important role as well for ingenious, low-tech, less-expensive approaches to improved health...
Why the Pelosi and Newsom Approaches to Prescription Drugs Won’t Really Help Patients
Dr. Wayne Winegarden, director of PRI’s Center for Medical Economics and Innovation, breaks down recently-proposed plans in Washington and Sacramento that emphasize price caps and more government control to address prescription drug prices. He discusses the conclusions of his new study on America’s drug pricing challenge, which makes the case that system-wide reforms to improve the complex drug supply chain and increase transparency are what’s needed to lower health care costs. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXSIkIWH3X4[/embed]...
Lies, Damn Lies, and Drug Price Increases
As each new year begins, the increases in the list prices of drugs are announced. And, following these announcements, the political class complains that something must be done. This year, following the price announcements, Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted “Enough is enough” while Senator Grassley emphasized that a “call to action” on drug prices is needed. Undoubtedly, there are real problems. Unfortunately, the politicians seem more interested in espousing simple talking points rather than effective actions that would simultaneously promote innovation and...
New Issue Brief shows that Reforming Supply Chain & Drug Pricing System Will Lower Health Care Costs
As Washington pushes for price caps and government controls to address prescription drug prices, a new issue brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute argues that reforming the complex drug supply chain and ending the current drug pricing system that overcharges patients – along with system-wide reforms – are what’s needed to lower America’s health care costs. “Politicians are promoting drug price caps and increased regulation in a futile attempt to increase...
To Help Patients, Reform The Drug Pricing System Don’t Impose Price Controls
Yesterday the House passed the ill-considered “Pelosi bill” that would impose draconian price controls on drugs. Ignoring the bill’s many adverse impacts, price control advocates like Speaker Pelosi appear to believe that these command and control schemes can solve the systemic health care affordability problem. But, as the latest government data illustrates, such efforts are a fool’s errand. Consider that back in 1960 national health expenditures equaled 5.0% of GDP. Health expenditures have been growing faster than the economy ever since reaching 17.7%...
Why You Should Worry About Drug Companies’ Reliance on Chinese Ingredients
China has become the world's largest producer and exporter of "active pharmaceutical ingredients," the base components drug companies use to manufacture most of the medications we rely on. China's dominance puts both the health of Americans and our national security at risk. According to the findings of a new report from the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission, which was established by Congress in 2000, China's pharmaceutical industry "is not effectively regulated by the Chinese government" and has been responsible for a...
Biosimilar benefits: A new study quantifies the cost-saving properties of innovative medications
Biosimilars could generate savings of about $116 million in New Jersey annually—including the state’s Medicaid program and patients with commercial insurance, according to a new issue brief by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute. Nationwide, those annual savings could reach $7 billion. PRI is a San Francisco-based free-market think tank. “We broke it down so you can look at it by state total and then breakout how much is for Medicaid which is directly applicable...
Wayne Winegarden Discusses Drug Price controls on Jim Bohannon Show
Wayne Winegarden, Director for PRI's Center for Medical Economics and Innovation, discusses the many problems with drug price controls on the nationally syndicated Jim Bohannon Show. ...
There Are High Costs From Implementing Drug Price Controls
Once wide coercive powers are given to government agencies…such powers cannot be effectively controlled. F.A. Hayek As part of the chorus calling for drug price controls, the New York Times editorial page has claimed that “Americans will need to accept a trade-off that other advanced nations long since come around to: Slightly fewer new drugs will come to market, in exchange for better prices on the medications that already exist”. There is not one part of this statement that is true. Worse, if the Times’...
No, There’s No Wild Bee-pocalypse, Either!
Did you catch the story about the swarm of 25,000 bees that had to be captured and removed (by a special police unit, no less) from the Staten Island Ferry Station in New York City? After many years of media reports about honeybees and wild bees dying off, you’d think they were nearly extinct — so what were 25,000 of them doing at a ferry terminal in one of the world’s most densely populated cities? Maybe they heard that New York was...
Dr. Henry Miller Celebrates Anniversary of Genetically-Engineered Human Insulin on Lars Larson Show
Listen to PRI's Dr. Henry Miller talk about his recent article on the anniversary of the manufacturing of human insulin by genetically-engineered bacteria on the nationally-syndicated Lars Larson Show. ...