Cures for an Ailing System

Payers and regulators need to balance the competing goals of curbing the growth in drug spending and promoting innovative treatments. All parties, government and private, should agree that insurance coverage will be linked to the demonstrated value of expensive new medicines. Congress should develop legislation allowing the FDA to promote competition among biopharmaceutical products when their patents expire, in a way that continues high standards of safety. In some specific circumstances (for example, unique drugs used primarily by the elderly), the Medicare program must be prepared to negotiate prices with drug companies. In sum, payers and regulators need to make decisions that involve great scientific and economic complexity, in order to make valuable new medicines affordable.
—Richard G. Frank, PH.D. Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School

© 2007