"This is a race to the bottom. Companies that can’t effectively price and promote the advantages of their products sometimes decide not to make them in the first place. The drug they don’t develop and the drug you aren’t administered might have been the one that got you out of the hospital a day earlier or even saved your life." #QotD

"When Americans [and those who rely upon American pharmaceutical research] talk about drug prices, the conversation is dominated by the eye-popping sticker prices of certain new drugs. We’re all aware of how sky-high prices can make it hard for some patients to afford the drugs they need. Yet few appreciate how patients also lose access to treatments when prices are too low.
    "The U.S. federal government’s attempts to keep prices low have created a chain of unintended consequences...
    "Because both the 340B program and the Medicaid best price law keep prices low, drug companies underinvest in the next generation of hospital outpatient drugs.
    "Another set of regulations further discourages hospitals from offering some drugs. For drugs administered in a hospital setting ... hospitals’ retail price remains pegged to the industrywide average, potentially forcing them to sell the drug at a loss...
    "In the drug arena, government is an 800-pound gorilla. Health-care providers and pharmaceutical companies are paying attention. The drug they don’t develop and the drug you aren’t administered might have been the one that got you out of the hospital a day earlier or even saved your life...
    "This is a race to the bottom. Companies that can’t effectively price and promote the advantages of their products sometimes decide not to make them in the first place. Americans [and the rest of the world] are being denied needed drugs because some prices are too low."
~ David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper from their post 'Henderson and Hooper on Why Some Drug Prices Are Too Low'
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