“The President’s Most Favored Nation proposal represents a catastrophic misstep for American biosciences innovation and patient access to life-saving treatments,” said John Conrad, President and CEO of the Illinois Biotechnology Innovation Organization. “This misguided approach would sabotage our world-leading pharmaceutical research ecosystem by importing failed foreign price controls into America’s healthcare system.”
“Importing socialized medicine and government price controls through international reference pricing to Medicaid would be particularly harmful to those committed to America’s most vulnerable patients,” Conrad continued. “Under our system today, Medicaid already collects more in rebates than it spends on prescription drugs annually.”
The United States leads the world in drug availability, with patients gaining access to innovative treatments years before those in countries with government price controls. More than 110 medicines approved in the United States since 2010 remain unavailable to patients in Europe due to restrictive pricing policies. Rare disease patients are particularly vulnerable, with similar pricing schemes rejecting up to 40% of rare disease treatments.
For Illinois, this proposal threatens to eliminate 9,500 jobs and $17 billion in economic output, while similar price-setting proposals could jeopardize $487 billion in venture partnerships over the next decade.
“Cuts to US innovators will only serve to stall investment across America’s biopharma companies, slow our scientific progress, deny U.S. patients access to new medicines and lead to fewer American jobs,” Conrad emphasized. “Weakening America’s biopharma sector through misguided pricing policies doesn’t just risk patient access to vital treatments and cures—it also erodes our national and economic security.“