NAM Hits Back at Price Controls in PAHPA Draft
The Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which expires at the end of September, is critical to public-health emergency readiness. Yet, a Senate bipartisan discussion draft to reauthorize it contains some provisions that are troubling to manufacturers, the NAM told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions this week.
The background: The Senate released a draft of a bill last week to reauthorize PAHPA, a measure passed in 2006 with the intention of ensuring national readiness for public-health emergencies.
Imposing price caps: The draft contains a requirement to cap the cost of any product that has received support from either the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority “at the lowest price charged for such … product[s]” among the G7 countries (the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom).
- Such a move would erase the advances made over the decades since the 1980 passage of the Bayh-Dole Act, which created mutually beneficial economic partnerships between the federal government, universities and private industry, NAM Managing Vice President of Policy Chris Netram said in his message to the committee.
- A price limit “would reduce the positive impact of the Bayh-Dole Act by imposing price controls on products developed through the innovation spurred by these partnerships,” he said.
Deterring innovation: Pricing controls also threaten continued scientific advancements of the sort that have cured once-prevalent diseases and solved “some of the world’s most prevalent and challenging health issues,” Netram continued.
- “The development of new medicines demands tremendous financial investment, many years of intensive effort and a willingness to accept significant risk. While public–private partnerships are important in stewarding new drugs to market, pharmaceutical companies bear almost the entire cost of discovering new drugs, ushering them to approval and scaling them through manufacturing.”
- In 2019, the pharmaceuticals industry invested more than $83 billion in the research and development of new drugs, Netram said, citing Congressional Budget Office data.
Stopping the flow of medication: Perhaps most concerningly, setting cost caps on drugs also jeopardizes the flow of medications to those who need them, Netram told the committee.
- “Price controls … restrict the supply of medicines to patients,” Netram concluded. “As such, price control language should be excluded from the PAHPA.”
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Manufacturers Unveil Competitiveness Agenda Ahead of Midterm Elections
“Competing to Win” offers a path for bringing the country together around policies, shared values and a unified purpose
Washington, D.C. – Ahead of the midterm elections, the National Association of Manufacturers released its policy roadmap, “Competing to Win,” a comprehensive blueprint featuring immediate solutions for bolstering manufacturers’ competitiveness. It is also a roadmap for policymakers on the laws and regulations needed to strengthen the manufacturing industry in the months and years ahead.
With the country facing rising prices, snarled supply chains and geopolitical turmoil, manufacturers are outlining an actionable competitiveness agenda that Americans across the political spectrum can support. “Competing to Win” includes the policies manufacturers in America will need in place to continue driving the country forward.
“‘Competing to Win’ offers a path for bringing our country together around policies, shared values and a unified purpose,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons. “The NAM is putting forward a plan filled with ideas that policymakers could pursue immediately, including solutions to urgent problems, such as energy security, immigration reform, supply chain disruptions, the ongoing workforce shortage and more. Manufacturers have shown incredible resilience through difficult times, employing more workers now than before the pandemic, but continued resilience is not guaranteed without the policies that are critical to the state of manufacturing in America.”
The NAM and its members will leverage “Competing to Win” to shape policy debates ahead of the midterm elections, in the remainder of the 117th Congress and at the start of the 118th Congress—including in direct engagement with lawmakers, for grassroots activity, across traditional and digital media and through events in key states and districts as we did following the initial rollout of the roadmap in 2016.
The document focuses on 12 areas of action, and all policies are rooted in the values that have made America exceptional and keep manufacturing strong: free enterprise, competitiveness, individual liberty and equal opportunity.
Learn more about how manufacturers are leading and about the industry’s competitiveness agenda at nam.org/competing-to-win.
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The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs more than 12.8 million men and women, contributes $2.77 trillion to the U.S. economy annually and accounts for 58% of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the NAM or to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org
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