Trump wooed them with promises of speeding up the process of bringing new drugs to market and removing regulations that deter companies from manufacturing drugs stateside. “You can’t get approval for a new plant, you can’t get approval for a new drug,” he said. “So we’re going to take care of that.”
Such an approach is unlikely to reduce prices, says James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International, a nonprofit research organization focused on vulnerable populations. “Right now, the U.S. lets companies charge whatever they want here,” says Love.
The dramatic price difference between branded and generic drugs underscores that point, says Love. The manufacturing process is the same, but branded drugs are, on average, 32 times more expensive than generics. “There’s just no relationship between the price of a drug and what it costs to make,” says Love.
The notion that lowering manufacturing costs would reduce drug costs is also misguided, says Mike Kelly, CEO of the Americas at Kantar Health, a pharmaceutical industry consulting company. “The cost of manufacturing a drug is infinitesimal compared to what it gets priced at.”
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-drug-prices-big-pharma-552295
Such an approach is unlikely to reduce prices, says James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International, a nonprofit research organization focused on vulnerable populations. “Right now, the U.S. lets companies charge whatever they want here,” says Love.
The dramatic price difference between branded and generic drugs underscores that point, says Love. The manufacturing process is the same, but branded drugs are, on average, 32 times more expensive than generics. “There’s just no relationship between the price of a drug and what it costs to make,” says Love.
The notion that lowering manufacturing costs would reduce drug costs is also misguided, says Mike Kelly, CEO of the Americas at Kantar Health, a pharmaceutical industry consulting company. “The cost of manufacturing a drug is infinitesimal compared to what it gets priced at.”
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-drug-prices-big-pharma-552295