Health Care Innovation
Blog
To See the Fallacy of H.R. 3 (Lower Drug Costs Now Act) Just Look at the Inflation Data
Railing about sky high drug prices makes good political theater and helps drum up support for the latest attempt to impose drug price controls (H.R. 3 or the Lower Drug Costs Now Act). This accusation also perpetuates misinformation. If implemented, H.R. 3 would endanger patient access to current efficacious medicines ...
Wayne Winegarden
June 9, 2021
Commentary
Biden’s Intellectual Property Waiver Puts Political Symbolism Before Saving Lives
President Biden recently backed a World Trade Organization proposal to waive intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines and therapies — a move the Trump administration rejected just a few months ago. The White House’s decision is a catastrophe. The waiver will do nothing to increase access to vaccines. It will, however, undermine the system ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 12, 2021
Commentary
With HR 3, House Democrats Lose Their Grip on Reality
Last week, House Democrats introduced H.R. 3, a bill that would empower the federal government to set prescription drug prices for the entire U.S. pharmaceutical market. The measure comes at the worst possible time. The rapid development of effective vaccines against COVID-19 has demonstrated what can happen when the drug industry ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 28, 2021
Blog
Here They Go Again: The Democratic Obsession with Drug Price Controls Will Harm Patients and Diminish Innovation
The U.S. House of Representatives is once again considering “The Lower Drug Costs Now Act”. It was a bad idea in the last Congress, and it is still bad policy today. If it becomes law, this Act (H.R. 3) empowers the federal government to negotiate prices on select drugs for ...
Wayne Winegarden
April 26, 2021
Commentary
Drug Importation Programs Come At Too High a Cost
Lawmakers in Colorado are trying to open their state’s borders to prescription drugs from abroad. In 2019, they green-lit imports from Canada. They’re still working on a plan to implement that policy that can garner federal approval. Then last week, legislators approved a bill that would allow Coloradans to import prescription drugs ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 15, 2021
Commentary
Violating intellectual property rights jeopardizes quality health care
Policymakers across the globe are attempting to vilify the same private companies that have been invaluable partners in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. If these efforts are successful, it will be patients who are harmed the most. Globally, the World Trade Organization (WTO) wants to waive the patent rights for the ...
Wayne Winegarden
April 14, 2021
Drug Pricing
ISSUE BRIEF: ICER Analyses Are Flawed, Undervalue Life-Saving Medicines, and Are Biased Toward Price Controls
A commonly-used analysis to determine a medicine’s value is based on flawed methodologies that would diminish innovation and access, finds a new report released today by the nonpartisan Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute. “Cost effectiveness reports may provide precise estimates, but there is no ...
Wayne H Winegarden
March 17, 2021
Commentary
Frivolous Patent Litigation Threatens The Technology Revolution
Patent trolls have been a plague on innovators for too long. Patent trolls are entities that obtain patents (sometimes obscure patents) for the sole purpose of threatening or filing lawsuits in court and then using the prospect of costly litigation to extort unwarranted payouts from an innovative company. The risks ...
Wayne Winegarden
March 4, 2021
Commentary
President Biden’s Bipartisan Opportunity to Reduce Patients’ Drug Costs
BY ROBERT POPOVIAN & WAYNE WINEGARDEN President Joe Biden should take advantage of a bipartisan opportunity to meaningfully reduce patients’ out-of-pocket spending on biopharmaceuticals. Seizing this opportunity requires the president to recognize that the drug cost problem exists because the current system inappropriately shifts too much of its expenditures to patients. Consider that ...
Pacific Research Institute
March 1, 2021
Health Care
Healthcare Policy During COVID-19 – Sacramento Policy Conference
This podcast is a recording of the health care panel discussion at PRI’s virtual Sacramento Policy Conference. Our All-Star panelists include Sally Pipes, PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy; Wayne Winegarden, PRI senior fellow in business and economics and director of PRI’s Center for ...
Pacific Research Institute
February 22, 2021
To See the Fallacy of H.R. 3 (Lower Drug Costs Now Act) Just Look at the Inflation Data
Railing about sky high drug prices makes good political theater and helps drum up support for the latest attempt to impose drug price controls (H.R. 3 or the Lower Drug Costs Now Act). This accusation also perpetuates misinformation. If implemented, H.R. 3 would endanger patient access to current efficacious medicines ...
Biden’s Intellectual Property Waiver Puts Political Symbolism Before Saving Lives
President Biden recently backed a World Trade Organization proposal to waive intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines and therapies — a move the Trump administration rejected just a few months ago. The White House’s decision is a catastrophe. The waiver will do nothing to increase access to vaccines. It will, however, undermine the system ...
With HR 3, House Democrats Lose Their Grip on Reality
Last week, House Democrats introduced H.R. 3, a bill that would empower the federal government to set prescription drug prices for the entire U.S. pharmaceutical market. The measure comes at the worst possible time. The rapid development of effective vaccines against COVID-19 has demonstrated what can happen when the drug industry ...
Here They Go Again: The Democratic Obsession with Drug Price Controls Will Harm Patients and Diminish Innovation
The U.S. House of Representatives is once again considering “The Lower Drug Costs Now Act”. It was a bad idea in the last Congress, and it is still bad policy today. If it becomes law, this Act (H.R. 3) empowers the federal government to negotiate prices on select drugs for ...
Drug Importation Programs Come At Too High a Cost
Lawmakers in Colorado are trying to open their state’s borders to prescription drugs from abroad. In 2019, they green-lit imports from Canada. They’re still working on a plan to implement that policy that can garner federal approval. Then last week, legislators approved a bill that would allow Coloradans to import prescription drugs ...
Violating intellectual property rights jeopardizes quality health care
Policymakers across the globe are attempting to vilify the same private companies that have been invaluable partners in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. If these efforts are successful, it will be patients who are harmed the most. Globally, the World Trade Organization (WTO) wants to waive the patent rights for the ...
ISSUE BRIEF: ICER Analyses Are Flawed, Undervalue Life-Saving Medicines, and Are Biased Toward Price Controls
A commonly-used analysis to determine a medicine’s value is based on flawed methodologies that would diminish innovation and access, finds a new report released today by the nonpartisan Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the Pacific Research Institute. “Cost effectiveness reports may provide precise estimates, but there is no ...
Frivolous Patent Litigation Threatens The Technology Revolution
Patent trolls have been a plague on innovators for too long. Patent trolls are entities that obtain patents (sometimes obscure patents) for the sole purpose of threatening or filing lawsuits in court and then using the prospect of costly litigation to extort unwarranted payouts from an innovative company. The risks ...
President Biden’s Bipartisan Opportunity to Reduce Patients’ Drug Costs
BY ROBERT POPOVIAN & WAYNE WINEGARDEN President Joe Biden should take advantage of a bipartisan opportunity to meaningfully reduce patients’ out-of-pocket spending on biopharmaceuticals. Seizing this opportunity requires the president to recognize that the drug cost problem exists because the current system inappropriately shifts too much of its expenditures to patients. Consider that ...
Healthcare Policy During COVID-19 – Sacramento Policy Conference
This podcast is a recording of the health care panel discussion at PRI’s virtual Sacramento Policy Conference. Our All-Star panelists include Sally Pipes, PRI President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy; Wayne Winegarden, PRI senior fellow in business and economics and director of PRI’s Center for ...