Sally C. Pipes challenges Sen. Bernie Sanders’ outlook on Ozempic, demanding lower prices. She argues that the research that inspired Sanders is misguided.
The injectable drug Ozempic is shown Saturday, July 1, 2023, in Houston. Several economic factors explain why drug prices are higher than manufacturing costs, writes Sally Pipes. Ignoring them and imposing price controls would disrupt drug development in the United States — and hurt patients worldwide.That’s the long and short of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ latest harebrained scheme to cut drug prices.
Sure, the marginal cost of production for each dose of Ozempic or Wegovy after the very first one may be a few bucks. But that ignores the billions it takes to develop the drug in the first place. Lawmakers could ban the anti-competitive practices that pharmacy benefit managers — the middlemen who negotiate with drug makers to assemble formularies, or lists of covered drugs, for insurance companies — use to keep drug prices high.
PBMs’ anti-competitive practices are why the gross price of prescription drugs has increased 87% since 2013, even as the net price drug makers receive has declined nearly 9%.
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