Danger of Pushing Down Prescription Prices

TAKEAWAY: DANGER OF PUSHING DOWN PRESCRIPTION PRICES

There is tremendous pressure all over the world in countries to bring down the prices for prescription drugs. And you probably think, oh God, here’s a guy, comes from a prescription drug company, he’s of course going to complain about that—and you’re right. I am going to complain about it. But I’ll try to do it in some type of balanced way.

The danger of pushing prices of prescription drugs down, down, and down is that at some point the business model to invest in these drugs—to develop them, as I said, is expensive, it takes a long time, will lose its attractiveness. And we are of course aware that health care system costs, in some countries, are out of control and need to be brought back, and it’s very easy to just focus on the pharma companies to go and get the money with lower drug prices. But in the end, the profits that we make on the current drugs really source and fund the R&D of the drugs in the future. And this balance needs to be put in context.