Pharmaceutical companies have willfully distorted the US prescription-drug market, but nearly all health-care players are complicit. Disrupting such a lucrative, well-entrenched system requires several specific changes – and, above all, the political will to end business as usual.
SAN FRANCISCO – It seems puzzling at first: prescription drug prices in the United States continue to rise at an alarming rate, despite the threat (or promise) of competition from cheaper generic substitutes. But there really is no mystery. Pharmaceutical companies pay players throughout the health-care system to favor their more expensive drugs over lower-priced alternatives. And those who should be acting as watchdogs for patients are happy to go along.
SAN FRANCISCO – It seems puzzling at first: prescription drug prices in the United States continue to rise at an alarming rate, despite the threat (or promise) of competition from cheaper generic substitutes. But there really is no mystery. Pharmaceutical companies pay players throughout the health-care system to favor their more expensive drugs over lower-priced alternatives. And those who should be acting as watchdogs for patients are happy to go along.