Should Medicare negotiate prices?
Star-Telegram.com, December 14th, 2006
We all depend, sooner or later, on breakthrough drugs, the product
of hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in research and
development. They are powerful weapons against disease.
But sometimes, after investing huge amounts of money and enlisting
the best efforts of brilliant research scientists, the companies making
these drugs fail.
Earlier this month, after investing more than $800 million in trying
to develop a blockbuster drug to combat heart disease, Pfizer Inc.
stopped work on torcetrapib. The reason: Some participants in the
clinical trials died of complications. Pfizer scientists had hoped that
this new experimental drug would be a powerful treatment to lower the
risk of heart attack and stroke. The good news: The scientists are
working to discover what went wrong.
Investment in R&D is the lifeblood of America's pharmaceutical
industry. Our expectations are well-founded on the performance of
America's scientific talent -- and the willingness of investors to take
the necessary risks.
Read more of this article.