November 20, 2020
As a leading advocate for consumers and patients across the country, CASE strongly condemns today’s new interim final rule implementing a “Most Favored Nation” policy on drug pricing.
Over the past week, we have already seen data begin to emerge that prove robust government support of private sector innovation can lead to world-altering outcomes for patients across the globe. The United States is on the cusp of the fastest vaccine development in world history—from multiple companies—and has progressively improved COVID-19 treatment options since the onset of the pandemic.
While CASE supports efforts to make health care more affordable for patients, inserting government price controls is a backwards approach that will have the opposite effect. This rule will unnecessarily handicap lifesaving innovators, while at the same time bringing socialized medicine from abroad onto U.S. shores.
Today’s executive action is an overreach by the White House and will incidentally make America among the LEAST favored nations, as incentives to innovate and produce new cures evaporate and patients are stuck with reduced access to limited cures and diminished hope for new ones. This move is a stark reversal from the executive branch’s successful record of mobilizing healthcare innovation at record pace, and it stands to undo much of the progress that we have seen unfold in the past several months.
As such, Consumer Action for a Strong Economy urges the Trump Administration to reconsider today’s rule and return to its proven model of supporting innovation and the patients that stand to benefit from it.
