US think-tanks assault Democrat drug price control proposals, warn of R&D cuts

Two in-depth attacks on the proposals of the US Democratic party, which will take control of both Houses of Congress in the new year, have been been produced by senior fellows of prominent free-market think-tanks. Benjamin Zycher is a former member of the President's Council for Economic Advisers under Ronald Reagan and currently a senior fellow at the New York-based Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Richard Epstein is a law professor from the University of Chicago and senior fellow at the Stanford University, California-based Hoover Institution.

Drug prices "would come down," but...

Dr Zycher describes the ambition of Nancy Pelosi (Democrat, California), the incoming Leader of the House of Representatives, as using "the massive size and buying power of the federal government" to drive down drug prices to "unprecedented levels." Although he recognizes that this ambition is feasible - unlike other critics who point to the effectiveness of the insurers to negotiate lower prices than expected for Medicare Part D beneficiaries (Marketletter December 4) - the Manhattan Institute fellow warns that "she is wrong that using the power of the federal government would come without a high cost: a reduction in the creation of new and improved medicines that would lessen future human suffering."