Affordable Medicine

Medicines are priced higher in the U.S.A. than in any other nation. This page is meant to build grassroots support for measures which can be taken to lower American medcine prices. Pharmaceutical companies claim that high prices are necessary to support the high research and development costs of the drugs. However, American tax dollars – YOUR tax dollars – actually pay for much of this research and development – 42%, according to testimony prepared by the Consumer Project on Technology. Most government pharmaceutical research is done at the National Institutes of Health, but other agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Departments of Defense, Energy, Veterans Affairs, the National Science Foundation, and NASA also contribute to the inventions of new medicines.

Furthermore, research and development done by the government tends to focus more on drugs of higher theraputic value and on drugs for treating life threatening or seriously debilitating diseases. Industry research, on the other hand, focuses primarily on treatments for less serious conditions, like allergies and baldness. It also focuses on so called “me too” drugs – medicines that are similar to drugs already patented by competing firms, but different enough to win new patents.

Policy makers in other countries have managed to lower the price of pharmaceuticals by allowing the compulsory licensing of them. This is a process where the government pays a royalty to the company which holds a patent on a product, and then allows another party to produce the product. This introduces competition into the market and drives the price down. In some cases, it can reduce the price by 75%.

There is currently legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would permit the compulsory licensing of medicines developed by taxpayer funds: The Affordable Prescription Drugs Act sponsored by Rep. Sherrod Brown. If you want to see this legislation passed into law, contact your Representative in the House. Express outrage that YOUR tax dollars were used to develop important drugs which were then licensed exclusively to firms that are now free to charge ridiculous monopoly prices. Let your representative know that you expect him or hre to support legislation for the compulsory licensing of these medinces. Then contact your Senators and let them know the same thing. The number for both houses of Congress is 202-225-3121, and the operator can give you the phone number for any Representative or Senator.