Health

Senate Finance Drug Pricing Framework Risks Similar Pitfalls of Price-Setting H.R. 3

  By Andrew Lautz, National Taxpayers Union   Last month, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) released a “Principles for Drug Pricing Reform” document that outlines how the Senator, who chairs one of the most powerful committees in Congress, would like to address prescription drug costs this year. While the document is sparse on details, […]

Tech

Don’t Slow Up Race For Cancer Cures

  By Mark Pfeifle and Bob Jensen   While Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer was steering bipartisan legislation to stimulate major investments in science through the Senate, his former chief counsel, acting Federal Trade Commission chairwoman, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, was leading the FTC in an unprecedented effort to block a merger of two U.S. companies […]

Tech

Why waiving intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines is wrong

    By Philip Stevens, Geneva Network   Last week the United States unexpectedly announced that it would join India, South Africa and others in supporting a proposal at the World Trade Organization to temporarily suspend intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines.   In theory, this would free up other companies to make copies of proprietary vaccines […]

Health

Rx Importation Poses a Threat to Consumers, Not A Solution

    By Foday Turay, American Consumer Institute   According to the GoodRx Research Team, 832 brand drugs have increased by an average of 4.5% since December 31, 2020. Americans pay around $1,200 for prescription drugs a year. The continuing rise of prescription drug prices has a significant impact on many Americans, especially during a global […]

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A joint declaration on the importance of IPRs to Covid vaccine manufacturing scale-up and future pandemic preparedness

      From the Geneva Network   We are an informal coalition of civil society organisations that believes that continued collaboration between governments, international organisations, the private sector, and civil society is the fastest way to end the Covid-19 pandemic and kickstart stalled economic growth. Respect for intellectual property rights is key and will […]

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An Appalling Theft

  By Grace-Marie Turner, Galen Institute   The Biden administration made “the single worst presidential economic decision since Nixon’s wage-and-price controls,” The Wall Street Journal wrote in a lead editorial last week. And we agree.   U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the U.S. would agree to “waive” intellectual property rights to Covid-19 vaccines and treatments and encourage other […]

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Sunlight Is The Cure For High Drug Prices

  By Dr. Marion Mass   Congress is considering legislation to rein in runaway drug prices. But any new law would be just political theater unless it shines a light on how pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs) manipulate drug pricing.   We soothe ourselves with slogans about America’s free-market health care. The reality is very different. […]

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Killing the patient to save the finger: COVID-19 is a metaphor for our time

  By Martin J. Stransky, MD, courtesy of The New Presence   In the coming months, the current CoV19 epidemic will be increasingly viewed from a social, political, and economic perspective.  Though the epidemic isn’t over yet, some telling conclusions can already be drawn regarding laws of human nature and our current society.     […]

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WHO’s Failings: Time for a New UN Health Agency?

  By Roger Bate, AEI   President Trump has halted funds to the World Health Organization (WHO). Undoubtedly he is looking to avoid blame for a slow U.S. government response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the tens of thousands of US deaths. But he also has a point. We need a global agency to combat […]

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Fred Gluck: Imagining a Bipartisan, Systematic Approach to Healthcare Reform

  By Fred Gluck, TES Contributor   As COVID-19 rivets our attention on health care, all proposed fixes for our health care system – from Medicare for All to a lightly regulated free market model – have the same fatal flaw. They merely tinker with the status quo, a slapdash, piecemeal design that will never […]