America’s biopharmaceutical companies to Congress: Government “negotiation” is the wrong approach

Today, PhRMA member companies made public an open letter to Capitol Hill to encourage Congress to abandon old partisan ideas on drug pricing and instead pursue policies that actually address what patients pay out of pocket. As the members state in their letter:

“The United States has nurtured a robust research and development ecosystem that is the envy of the world.  Unfortunately, our ability to remain global leaders in innovation and patient care is under attack.”

Government “negotiation” – a smokescreen that gives the government the power to set the price of medicines and decide what medicines patients can and can’t get – is the wrong approach to fix the health care system. It does nothing to hold insurers and middlemen accountable for pocketing savings from our companies that should go to patients to lower their costs. What’s worse, it would lead to less research and development of new treatments and limits people’s access to medicines once they come to market. The letter continues:

“We agree with leaders in Washington that Americans need help with their health care costs, but these dangerous policy experiments are not the answer.”

As outlined in the letter below, there are common-sense solutions that would improve affordability while preserving innovation and access.

Learn more about how we are working together to improve the health care system at phrma.org/betterway.