TPA Slams Price Controls on Lifesaving Drugs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) sharply criticized the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for finalizing a rule enacting onerous price controls on pharmaceuticals. The rule implements the Global Benchmark for Efficient Drug Pricing (GLOBE) Medicare payment model, which ties U.S. medication prices to the artificially low prices dictated by countries with socialized healthcare systems.

Ross Marchand, Executive Director of TPA, offered the following comment:

“Medicare price controls will mean fewer treatments for millions of patients. Bringing a medication to market typically takes more than a decade and up to $2 billion, and manufacturers will only spend this time and money developing new products if they are able to recoup these investments. Draconian price controls take away that flexibility and significantly diminish the incentive to bring lifesaving new medications to market.

“Price controls have a terrible track record of improving healthcare access. European countries, which rely heavily on drug and medical device price controls in their healthcare systems, have learned this lesson the hard way. Because of price controls, virtually every hospital pharmacist in Europe has reported critical medicine shortages. Everything from antimicrobial agents to oncology medications to anesthetic agents is now harder to get because of heavy-handed government policies. Importing these policies into the U.S. is a recipe for disaster.

“The federal government must immediately reverse course and reject price controls on lifesaving medications.”

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The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis, and dissemination of information on the government’s impact on the economy.