Dems are pushing legislation that would slow drug creation
After a bleak pandemic winter, Ohio has fully vaccinated some 1.9 million residents against Covid-19. Already, everyone in the state over 16 is eligible to receive a shot. Not bad, considering last year at this time, experts warned it could take years for vaccines to become available. Instead, drug makers Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson brought their inoculations to market in less than one. This record-breaking rollout was no fluke.
It was a direct result of billions of dollars of private-sector investment, coupled with U.S. policies that encourage drug invention. Thanks to our system, American biopharmaceutical firms currently have 4,500 medicines in development, including 260 vaccines, making the United States the global leader in medical innovation.
Now, the industry is poised to produce even more lifesaving cures, but only if lawmakers protect the policies that spur invention. Unfortunately, that’s not a given. Democrats in Congress are pushing legislation that would undercut our biotechnology.
U.s.-based scientists developed the transformative technology known as messenger RNA, or MRNA, the basis for several leading Covid-19 vaccines. When a shot is administered, MRNA instructs cells to produce a harmless version of the virus, which triggers an immune response to fight off the disease.
But we’ve only seen the beginning of MRNA’S potential. The same underlying technology could give us vaccines and therapies for a host of other illnesses, including heart disease and cancer – the two leading causes of death in Ohio and nationwide. In 2021, cancer will claim the lives of some 25,000 Ohioans. We can’t lower that number in future years if we stymie innovation.
Measures that would severely slow drug creation abound. One is the “Lower Drug Costs Now Act,” also known as H.R. 3. First introduced in 2019, this sweeping bill would impose foreign price controls in the United States – and is expected to be re-introduced within weeks. The measure would make it nearly impossible for drug companies to recoup their upfront research costs – let alone invest in new drug development – thus delaying the creation of numerous new treatments.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that in just the first decade after passage, H.R. 3 would result in up to 15 fewer new drugs coming to market. A different analysis found it could result in 61 fewer new medicines over the next 10 years. Any one of those could be a cure for cancer or heart disease, or a vaccine for the next pandemic.
Other lawmakers are pushing for big changes to the laws and regulations that govern intellectual property rights. But such protections underpin the entire innovation ecosystem, generating income that companies need to reinvest in research. Getting rid of them would halt U.S. medical progress.
With the U.S. Congress closely divided, Republican Ohio Senator Rob Portman has a key role to play in guarding the intellectual property rights responsible for so many breakthroughs. His record of bipartisanship puts him in a position to help influence Democratic colleagues, and cooperate to protect a system that has saved untold lives.
A future of made-in-america medical breakthroughs is within our grasp. But it can’t happen if we destroy drug innovation through bad policy.
Scott Pullins is the founder of the Ohio Taxpayers Association.