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Opinion: Price controls would stifle innovation in the pharmaceutical industry

Regulating drug prices might shave a few points off health care spending, but the blow to innovation would be huge.

Consumer access to affordable and effective medicines is an important issue. As the cost of many drugs continues to rise, sometimes astronomically, some have suggested imposing price controls on the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. Doing that risks crippling our only hope of curing the many serious diseases that still plague us.

The global pharmaceutical industry is among the most profitable, driven by its ability to price to value, especially in the United States. High profits attract investors and generate money for research. The global pharmaceutical industry’s investment in on research and development as a percent of sales than do the top 18 U.S. .

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