Government Pharmaceutical Development to Address High Prices: Challenges Ahead

Government development of new medicines has recently received attention as a means of lowering drug prices. These proposals are generally based on the assumption that the private market charges prices that are higher than justified by the costs of development. Although some costs could be avoided through government drug development, most costs would remain unchanged and some could potentially increase. Inefficiencies that are more difficult to quantify are likely to worsen with greater government involvement in research allocation decisions, including lobbying by industry or patient groups. Government manufacturing is an alluring proposition, but is unlikely in the long term to improve new drug development or lower costs.