Our Broken Drug Pricing and Patent System Diverts Resources Away from Innovation and into Mergers, Patent Gaming and Price Gouging

As Congress considers ways to reform drug pricing this year, it is, unsurprisingly, being met with heavy resistance from paid special interests, including pharmaceutical companies’ lawyers and lobbyists who claim that any attempt to rein in industry abuses will harm innovation. This is false. In fact, as laid out below, there is overwhelming evidence that our current system actually stifles innovation. Reforming our drug pricing system can and should aim to retain positive financial incentives for innovation while eliminating destructive incentives that steer tax and premium dollars to anti-competitive behavior.