Matt's take: Facing the realities of drug pricing

There’s simply no logic to America’s drug-pricing system, but cutting drug prices will undeniably make a major dent in future R&D. The end result? Fewer new drugs. Biopharma is under intense scrutiny for good reason, but recent pricing legislation has sent the industry into panic mode.

How did it all come to this? STAT’s Matt Herper opines, giving a lay of the pricing landscape — and looking to potential paths forward.

“What’s scariest about the new House bill, to biopharma executives, is that it would fix prices based on how drugs are priced in other countries, forcing them into an unpredictable, multi-faceted dance in launching their products,” he writes. “And no, it’s not fair for the U.S. to pay more than other countries, but that has no effect on whether science gets done.”