The US Gov already has complete control over the - drug approval process. Posted: Sep 9th, 2017 - 10:25 am In Reply to: The Swamp is incoherent on the rule of law, thanks - to Pharma.
If they're going to set the prices as well, then aren't these drug companies really just public utilities?
What is the difference between government dictated fixed prices versus government required “discount programs” for certain classes of buyers? Very little.
I do not think that Medicaid and Medicare or any select group of hospitals deserve a break, a selective break only they get. Most likely, higher prices are charged to everyone else because of the federal programs for special classes of drug buyers.
The drug companies already accept government dictated prices in many countries. They are nearly always less than charged here. I don’t like the idea of any government dictating the prices, but the fact is it is being done and big Pharma is accepting it. Yet they fight it here in the US. We can get lower drug prices, without dictating what those prices must be, with one simple rule.
Acknowledging that big Pharma is accepting lower government fixed prices outside the US. tell big pharma those prices are going to apply in a simple rule for drug pricing in the US. That rule would be that they can charge in the U.S. no more than the median of the prices they are accepting for a drug in overseas markets where the government dictates the price - not the highest, or lowest, just the median.
Three things will happen. Big pharma will rethink and adjust how they are dealing with those foreign markets that dictate the price. In some cases they will fight harder for a higher price. In some cases they will quit selling a drug in particular foreign market. The more they accept dictated prices overseas, the more it will affect their prices here. Many U.S. prices will go down. Some prices overseas will go up. The availability of drugs in some markets will change.
The US will quit subsidizing foreigners drug prices.
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