Consumer Access to Affordable Medicines Is a Public Health Imperative, Says New Report; Government Negotiation of Drug Prices, Prevention of 'Pay-for-Delay' Agreements, and Increased Financial Transparency Among Recommendations

Consumer access to effective and affordable medicines is an imperative for public health, social equity, and economic development, but this need is not being served adequately by the biopharmaceutical sector, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report offers eight recommendations with 27 actions for their implementation to improve the affordability of prescription drugs without discouraging the development of new and more effective drugs for the future. Over the past several decades, the biopharmaceutical sector in the United States has been successful in developing and delivering effective drugs for improving health and fighting disease, and many medical conditions that were long deemed untreatable can now be cured or managed effectively. However, high and increasing costs of prescription drugs coupled with the broader trends in overall medical expenditures, which now equals 18 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, are unsustainable to society as a whole. Read More
Source: News from the National Academies - Category: Science Source Type: news