Seven presidential candidates on drug pricing, in their own words

My colleague Andrew Joseph recently got the opportunity to ask seven of the Democratic presidential candidates about their plans for lowering the cost of prescription drugs. You can check out excerpts from those interviews here. 

Drew pushed the candidates hard on whether efforts to massively shake up the drug pricing system would lead to fewer drugs coming to market, and he tried to gauge how serious the candidates are about their most radical plans, like breaking drug makers’ patents.

On the latter point, it’s worth reading Pete Buttigieg’s response to Drew’s question. While Buttigieg made waves when his drug pricing plan, released in October 2019, included the threat of breaking patents, he beat back any suggestion that he would use this power cavalierly. 

“I hope never to reach for that tool, but I think it’s really important that it be on the books,” Buttigeig told Drew. Read more here.