Price Controls Reduce Development and Access to Vital Cures
As Americans prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding, the festivities should include recognition of the United States as the global leader in biopharmaceutical development and innovation. However, America’s place atop the globe is being challenged by government intervention, specifically provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Most Favored Nation (MFN) policies, which are stifling the research and development of new cures and treatments.
Price controls in any industry, including biopharmaceuticals, do not work and inevitably lead to shortages and disrupted markets. According to a 2026 Leerink Center for Pharmacoeconomics report, government intervention like the IRA and MFN threaten the innovation of novel cures and decrease incentives for generics and biosimilars to enter the market. The report estimates that for every $140 million in branded sales the year prior to entry, there is approximately one more generic entrant.
The development and continued access to generic and biosimilar drugs are essential to reducing healthcare costs. According to the Association for Accessible Medicines, 90 percent of prescriptions filled in 2024 were generics and biosimilars and saving patients $467 billion.
Proponents of price controls and greater government control in healthcare claim that these policies will help patients by lowering costs, but the reality is quite different. An August 2022 University of Chicago issue brief found that price controls would increase healthcare spending by $50.8 billion over the next 20 years and result in 135 fewer drugs, negatively impacting the lives of 2.47 million patients. Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has long fought back against government price controls on biopharmaceuticals, including MFN and the IRA Medicare “negotiations” and has warned that these policies will lead to an invisible graveyard of patients who never receive the medicine and treatments they need. CAGW’s November 2021 issue brief, “Pharmaceutical Price Controls are Bad Medicine” is one of many such publications.
Price controls on pharmaceuticals do not work and have devastating negative effects on patients. The IRA and MFN threaten the U.S.’s position as a global leader in pharmaceutical innovation and will stifle the development of new cures and treatments. Lawmakers should push back on any effort that would allow the government to set prices or increase government control over healthcare.
