Abstract
Government development of new medicines has recently received attention as a means of lowering drug prices. These proposals are generally based on the assumption that the private market charges prices that are higher than justified by the costs of development. Although some costs could be avoided through government drug development, most costs would remain unchanged and some could potentially increase. Inefficiencies that are more difficult to quantify are likely to worsen with greater government involvement in research allocation decisions, including lobbying by industry or patient groups. Government manufacturing is an alluring proposition, but is unlikely in the long term to improve new drug development or lower costs.
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Funding
Darrow receives research support from ACCISS, Arnold Ventures, the Commonwealth Fund, the Greenwall Foundation, the Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy, West Health, and under a Novo Nordisk Foundation grant for a scientifically independent Collaborative Research Programme (grant NNF17SA0027784). The funders had no role in the conception, preparation, or approval of the manuscript, or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
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Darrow, J.J. Government Pharmaceutical Development to Address High Prices: Challenges Ahead. Ther Innov Regul Sci 55, 1103–1105 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-021-00324-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43441-021-00324-6