Academy urges government to negotiate with drugmakers

WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Sciences called Thursday for changes in the pricing, sale and promotion of prescription drugs to make lifesaving treatments more affordable without discouraging the development of new medicines.

The federal government should negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, the academy said, an idea pushed by Democrats for years, embraced by President Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, but opposed by congressional Republicans. The government, it said, should also deny tax deductions for drug advertising aimed at consumers and set annual limits on out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries.

“Consumer access to effective and affordable medicines is an imperative for public health, social equity and economic development,” a panel of 17 experts said in the report. “However, this imperative is not being adequately served by the biopharmaceutical sector today.”

“The federal government,” it said, “should consolidate and apply its purchasing power to directly negotiate prices with the producers and suppliers of medicines.”

The report does not endorse price controls, saying they could erode incentives for the development of valuable new drugs. But the government, it said, should take steps to prevent “common industry practices that delay the entry of lower-cost generic drugs into the market.”

The panel consisted of doctors, lawyers, economists, a state health official from Louisiana, a former executive of UnitedHealth Group, and former Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.