According to a Reuters report (see http://www.msnbc.com/news/761583.asp), the often lamented increase in spending on pharmaceuticals is slowing: "By 2005 and 2006, the spending growth rate is expected to drop to 13.5 percent from increased use of generics and thin product pipelines from branded drug companies."
Express Scripts, one of the nation's largest pharmacy-benefits managers, made that prediction about slowed spending, a prediction that will no doubt be seen by many as good news. One reason for the "good news," though, is fewer new medicines, an inevitable and unfortunate side effect of caps on profits, whether those caps take the form of explicit price control laws, threats to sue companies for price gouging, weakened intellectual property protections, fear of negative publicity caused by activist denunciations, mandatory low-cost distribution to certain users, or burdensome regulations. We may be paying a bit less because, sadly, we're getting a bit less than we would in a freer climate.
One can't help but wonder if Public Citizen's Sidney Wolfe and other critics of pharmaceutical profits are thinking: "Hey, as long as the drug companies aren't profiting, who cares about public health?"
Jeff Stier is associate director of the American Council on Science and Health.
