Speaker Pelosi’s Drug Pricing Plan “Crushes the Desperate Hopes of Patients and their Families”

Washington, D.C. (September 19, 2019) – Former Congressman Jim Greenwood, the President and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), issued the following statement after Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives unveiled a proposal intended to lower prescription drug prices:

“This proposal crushes the desperate hopes of patients and their families that life science innovators will be the answer to their prayers. It abandons any pretense of allowing a free and fair market system to determine the value of prescription medicines, including for the most innovative medical breakthroughs. It will extinguish any incentive for investors to provide the necessary funds to advance biotech medical discovery. House Democratic leaders would surrender to foreign bureaucracies the power to dictate the value of medicines and the treatments available to America’s patients. If this proposal were to become law, it will upend our country’s ability to lead the world in biomedical innovation.

“Our researchers and scientists work every day trying to deliver new medicines that will alleviate human suffering and bend the cost curve in health care spending. We need to lower drug costs for patients, and our research companies are eager to be part of a holistic solution involving all players in the health care system. However, we will oppose any plan that destroys our ability to develop new treatments or restricts access to the medicines patients need, and that is precisely what Speaker Pelosi’s plan would do.

“It is deeply unfortunate House leaders have chosen an extreme approach that will make it harder to deliver meaningful reform for patients. The last thing we need is for our elected leaders to score short-term political points at the expense of meaningful long-term solutions that will benefit patients. Lawmakers must reject this extreme proposal and work on real reforms that lower costs for patients and protect America’s leadership in medical innovation.”

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