Health Care Innovation
California
The Perils of Regulating Drugs by Sound Bite
There is a legal adage that “hard cases make bad law.” California may soon rediscover this wisdom. Assembly member Jim Wood has introduced a bill (AB 824) with the intention of discouraging “pay-for-delay” tactics. “Pay-for-delay” practices refer to a situation when a manufacturer of a patented drug pays the manufacturer ...
Wayne Winegarden
May 16, 2019
Commentary
Price Controls by Another Name
The costs of medicines continue to dominate the headlines, attracting the attention of Congress and the Trump Administration. Reforms are necessary, but many of the reforms under consideration will make the situation worse. Indexing U.S. prices to the prices in other countries that use price controls, or using third-party arbitration ...
Wayne Winegarden
April 30, 2019
Agriculture
The Brave Old World of Genetic Engineering
By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Rob Wager A Washington Post article, “The Future of Food,” discussed the methods we use to breed food crops but suffered from a shortcoming we see often: “pseudo-balance” — the seeking out of clueless commentators to contradict advocates of superior modern genetic modification ...
Pacific Research Institute
April 30, 2019
Commentary
Say No To Canadian Drug Imports
Lawmakers in the Sunshine State are looking to our northern neighbor to help them reduce drug prices. The Florida House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would allow the importation and sale of prescription drugs from Canada, where prices are generally lower because the government forcibly controls them. Florida isn’t the ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 29, 2019
Health Care
Sally Pipes Share Benefits of Telemedicine With Heartland News
Telemedicine Offers Remedy for Rising Travel and Wait Times By Leo Pusateri Travel and wait times for health care cost patients $89 billion annually, according to an analysis by Altarum, bolstering arguments for the removal of regulatory and legal barriers to the growth of telemedicine. Patients travel an average of ...
Pacific Research Institute
April 25, 2019
Featured
PRI Launches New Center for Medical Economics and Innovation
SAN FRANCISCO – California-based nonpartisan think tank the Pacific Research Institute today announced the launch of a new Center for Medical Economics and Innovation, which will research and advance policies showing how a thriving biomedical and pharmaceutical sector benefits both patients and economic growth. Timely research, analysis and commentary relating ...
Pacific Research Institute
April 23, 2019
Business & Economics
Price Controls Are Never The Answer
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has just doubled down on one of the Trump Administration’s unsound ideas. His proposal is disappointing for many reasons, particularly because Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has proposed an alternative reform that, if Congress implemented, would meaningfully improve the affordability of prescription drugs ...
Wayne Winegarden
April 1, 2019
California
March 18 – Free-Market Solutions to California’s Health Care Challenges
In part 1 of a special 4-part series on how free-market ideas can build new, diverse coalitions in California, PRI’s Sally Pipes, Wayne Winegarden, and Henry Miller discuss how proposals like single-payer health care and new mandates on prescription drugs would hurt innovation and how market-based policies can better address ...
Pacific Research Institute
March 18, 2019
Commentary
The FDA has problems — Here are the qualities the next commissioner must have to fix them
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the nation’s most ubiquitous regulatory agency. It oversees a vast array of medical and food products that account for 25 cents of every consumer dollar, with a value of over a trillion dollars annually. And the agency has problems. It’s too risk-averse, bureaucratically ...
Henry Miller, M.S., M.D.
March 10, 2019
Business & Economics
Three Blind Men And The Health Care Industry
Today’s hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee will, unfortunately, be another wasted opportunity. Surely, Senators will make grandiose speeches and be shocked at the cost of drugs. They will also continue to support the very policies that are causing the problems the hearing is supposed to address. A February 25th editorial ...
Wayne Winegarden
February 26, 2019
The Perils of Regulating Drugs by Sound Bite
There is a legal adage that “hard cases make bad law.” California may soon rediscover this wisdom. Assembly member Jim Wood has introduced a bill (AB 824) with the intention of discouraging “pay-for-delay” tactics. “Pay-for-delay” practices refer to a situation when a manufacturer of a patented drug pays the manufacturer ...
Price Controls by Another Name
The costs of medicines continue to dominate the headlines, attracting the attention of Congress and the Trump Administration. Reforms are necessary, but many of the reforms under consideration will make the situation worse. Indexing U.S. prices to the prices in other countries that use price controls, or using third-party arbitration ...
The Brave Old World of Genetic Engineering
By Henry I. Miller, M.S., M.D. and Rob Wager A Washington Post article, “The Future of Food,” discussed the methods we use to breed food crops but suffered from a shortcoming we see often: “pseudo-balance” — the seeking out of clueless commentators to contradict advocates of superior modern genetic modification ...
Say No To Canadian Drug Imports
Lawmakers in the Sunshine State are looking to our northern neighbor to help them reduce drug prices. The Florida House of Representatives recently passed a bill that would allow the importation and sale of prescription drugs from Canada, where prices are generally lower because the government forcibly controls them. Florida isn’t the ...
Sally Pipes Share Benefits of Telemedicine With Heartland News
Telemedicine Offers Remedy for Rising Travel and Wait Times By Leo Pusateri Travel and wait times for health care cost patients $89 billion annually, according to an analysis by Altarum, bolstering arguments for the removal of regulatory and legal barriers to the growth of telemedicine. Patients travel an average of ...
PRI Launches New Center for Medical Economics and Innovation
SAN FRANCISCO – California-based nonpartisan think tank the Pacific Research Institute today announced the launch of a new Center for Medical Economics and Innovation, which will research and advance policies showing how a thriving biomedical and pharmaceutical sector benefits both patients and economic growth. Timely research, analysis and commentary relating ...
Price Controls Are Never The Answer
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has just doubled down on one of the Trump Administration’s unsound ideas. His proposal is disappointing for many reasons, particularly because Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, has proposed an alternative reform that, if Congress implemented, would meaningfully improve the affordability of prescription drugs ...
March 18 – Free-Market Solutions to California’s Health Care Challenges
In part 1 of a special 4-part series on how free-market ideas can build new, diverse coalitions in California, PRI’s Sally Pipes, Wayne Winegarden, and Henry Miller discuss how proposals like single-payer health care and new mandates on prescription drugs would hurt innovation and how market-based policies can better address ...
The FDA has problems — Here are the qualities the next commissioner must have to fix them
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the nation’s most ubiquitous regulatory agency. It oversees a vast array of medical and food products that account for 25 cents of every consumer dollar, with a value of over a trillion dollars annually. And the agency has problems. It’s too risk-averse, bureaucratically ...
Three Blind Men And The Health Care Industry
Today’s hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee will, unfortunately, be another wasted opportunity. Surely, Senators will make grandiose speeches and be shocked at the cost of drugs. They will also continue to support the very policies that are causing the problems the hearing is supposed to address. A February 25th editorial ...