8 September 2016 - Pfizer chief executive said recent proposals by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to curb "unjustified" U.S. drug prices would dampen investment in innovative new drugs and ultimately hurt consumers.

"(They) would be very negative for innovation," Ian Read said in webcast from the annual Wells Fargo healthcare conference in Boston. He said Clinton's proposals, if ever approved, would be a step toward a one-payer government system of price controls on prescription medicines.

Critics of the pharmaceutical industry have long argued that drugmakers unfairly raise prices at will, making their products increasingly less accessible to patients. Drugmakers counter that it can cost $1 billion dollars or more to develop the typical drug and say they need to be reimbursed for the costs and risk-taking.

Read said he did not believe price controls like those seen in Europe would occur in the United States.

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