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January 20, 2026 Briefs, Price and Costs

A new issue brief released by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute finds that innovative drug manufacturers earn some of the lowest risk-adjusted returns in the U.S. health care system, despite making the largest investments in research and development. The findings challenge the central claim used to justify government drug price controls. The brief examines financial data from more than 1,200 publicly traded U.S.-based companies across five major health care sectors between 2022 and...

January 16, 2026 Briefs, Resources

SACRAMENTO – California-based free market think tank the Pacific Research Institute announced today that it has filed an amicus curiae brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear two cases challenging the federal government’s new prescription drug pricing program enacted under the Inflation Reduction Act. The cases, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and Bristol Myers Squibb Co. v. Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, involve the...

December 22, 2025 Briefs, Studies

SACRAMENTO. (December 22, 2025) — The free-market Pacific Research Institute today released an issue brief finding that the Trump administration's proposed 50% tax on patent revenue from inventions created using federal grants would disincentivize universities from expending the time, money, and effort to engage in federally-funded research. "Universities respond to incentives just like private companies do," said Sally C. Pipes, the author of the issue brief and PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy. "If Washington...

November 4, 2025 Briefs, Studies

SACRAMENTO – Proposed reforms to fix the problems with the current Medicare bidding process for acquiring prosthetics, CPAP machines, wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment don’t go far enough to fix the fundamental flaws in the process, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan, California-based, free market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Click here to download the brief “Medicare’s current broken bidding process drives up taxpayer costs, promotes the use of...

October 1, 2025 Briefs, Policy Proposals, Price and Costs, Studies

SACRAMENTO – As California prepares to restrict access to proven private health insurers for dual eligible Medicare and Medi-Cal patients, the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute – the nonpartisan, California-based, free market think tank – today released a new brief showing that expanding competition—not imposing new government restrictions—is the best way to lower costs, expand access, and improve patient outcomes. Download the new brief at www.medecon.org “California mistakenly believes that reducing health care choices will save...

August 4, 2025 Briefs, Industry Trends, Studies

SACRAMENTO – A new issue brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute calls for reforms to expand the reach of the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), a joint Medicare and Medicaid program that delivers comprehensive medical and social care services to lower-income seniors eligible for nursing home-level care so they can live safely at home. Click here to download the brief Expanding PACE’s reach by supporting additional for-profit providers participating...

July 25, 2025 Blog, Briefs, Studies

SACRAMENTO – The Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute – a nonpartisan, California-based, free market think tank – today released a new issue brief warning that efforts by the Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress to embrace and expand the government price controls on prescription drugs – first introduced under the Inflation Reduction Act and signed into law by President Biden in August 2022 – would deal a major blow to American pharmaceutical innovation...

June 11, 2025 Briefs, Studies

The Pacific Research Institute’s Center for Medical Economics and Innovation today released a new issue brief warning that continued federal underpayment of doctors is fueling a looming healthcare crisis by accelerating the nation’s physician shortage and undermining access to care. Written by PRI senior fellow in business and economics and CMEI director Dr. Wayne Winegarden, the brief (titled “It’s Time for Medicare to Stop Shortchanging Physicians”) finds that Medicare reimbursement rates are well below market value and have failed to keep...

February 27, 2025 Briefs, Price and Costs, Studies

SACRAMENTO – Nevada taxpayers could face millions in new bureaucratic costs and patients will likely see less access to life-saving drugs if state government mandates so-called “Maximum Fair Price” price controls on prescription drugs, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan, California-based, free-market think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. “Some Nevada lawmakers want to enact government price controls on prescription drugs in the name of lowering costs for patients,” said Dr....

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 17, 2025 Blog, Briefs, Issues, Price and Costs

PRI’s scholars responded to today’s action by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) announcing 15 additional drugs under Medicare Part D that will be subject to government price setting effective January 1, 2027.  The action was authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Biden in August 2022. According to Sally C. Pipes, PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy and author of the soon-to-be published book The World’s Medicine Chest: How America Achieved...

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...

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 23, 2024 Issues, Multimedia, Policy Proposals, Radio

“On the other side of the political spectrum is Wayne Winegarden, Ph.D., the Senior Fellow in Business and Economics at Pacific Research Institute, and Director of PRI’s Center for Medical Economics and Innovation. “He and his colleagues believe that patients are not in control of the health care system and that we suffer from an opaque and complex pricing structure that harms patients. “Winegarden’s free market approach means he advocates for doing away with the Obamacare subsidies that Congress must consider, as...

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...