13 August 2015 - A familiar trope employed at the climax of movie thrillers is the zombie who returns from the dead to devour the brains of the living.

The biopharmaceutical industry may be forgiven for feeling as if it is living in its very own horror show of late. In this case, zombies take the metaphorical form of retooled, failed policies that are resurrected by presidential candidates and office holders who clamor for price controls. The contemplated price controls may be imposed directly, or thinly disguised as liberalized drug importation laws, statutory price ceilings under Medicare, or price discounts and rebates set by formula or by an unaccountable government bureaucrat. As one example, legislation has been introduced in the Massachusetts state senate that would require extensive disclosure of a manufacturer’s research, production and marketing expenses, and empower the state’s Health Policy Commission to set a cap on prices for certain high cost drugs.

Populism is a politically powerful elixir, but naked opportunism deserves to be refuted with hard evidence and sound analysis. These proposals are not only simplistic (and in some cases at odds with legitimate safety concerns), they also threaten to further limit the flow of investment capital essential to continued biomedical innovation that will enable physicians to manage successfully cancer, autoimmune disorders, and CNS diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. At the same time, evidence of significant increased spending on biopharmaceuticals in 2014 suggests that the industry would be well served to consider more creative, thoughtful approaches to drug pricing.

For more details, go to: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnosborn/2015/08/13/desperately-seeking-price-reform-the-pharmaceutical-industry-needs-to-change-its-ways/