WASHINGTON — The pharmaceutical industry’s Washington lobbying group is fighting full force to scuttle a Trump administration policy proposal that would tie the price of drugs in the U.S. to their costs abroad — and making a handful of specious arguments along the way, health policy experts told STAT.
PhRMA has launched a multipronged attack against the proposal, arguing that it would, in effect, make health care in America more closely resemble systems in Europe. Patients wouldn’t be able to get as many new drugs and might suffer as a result, they say.
The above critiques are straw man arguments, but it would be great to further report on legitimate critiques.
Specifically, the opinion piece, written on this website a week or so ago, titled “Drug Pricing Conversations Must Include the Cost of Innovation”, is a very clear description of the trade-offs at hand. STATNews can be a place for informative conversations around these real trade-offs, not just in opinion pieces, but pressing those who try to ignore those trade-offs (politicians, policy makers, advocates) for on-the-record acknowledgement of these facts.