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Price controls: preparing for the unthinkable

Nature Biotechnology volume 24, pages 257–260 (2006)Cite this article

The momentum in the United States to impose price controls is growing. Stephan Herrera lists some of the reasons why.

Recently, at the JP Morgan Healthcare conference1 and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland2, for example, there was much discussion about things like the rising cost of R&D, the rising cost of management talent, the rising threat of patent insecurity and the rising challenge from and opportunity emerging in China and India. There was little, if any, discussion about prescription drug pricing.

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Figure 1: Annual percentage change in selected US health expenditures, 1980–2004.
Figure 2: Percent of total US prescription drug expenditures by type of payer, 1990–2004.

References

  1. JP Morgan 24th Annual Healthcare Conference, Westin St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, California, January 9–12, 2006. http://www.mapdigital.com/jpmorgan/healthcare06/

  2. World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, January 25–29, 2006. http://www.weforum.org/site/homepublic.nsf/Content/Annual+Meeting+2006

  3. Kaiser Family Foundation. Prescription Drug Trends (Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, California, November 2005).

  4. National Association of Chain Drug Stores. KFF calculations using Data from National Association of Chain Drug Stores, “Industry Facts-at-a-Glance.” Based on Data from IMS Health. http://www.nacds.org/

  5. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer Price Index, US City Average. http://www.bls.gov/

  6. Heffler, S. et al. US Health Spending Projections For 2004-2014. Health Affairs, Web Exclusive. W5-74–W5-85; published online February 23, 2005. http://www.cms.hhs.gov/statistics/nhe/projections-2004/proj2004.pdf

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  7. Anonymous. Fortune. April 18, 2005.

  8. Harris, G. Gee, fixing welfare seemed like a snap. New York Times, June 16, 2005.

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  9. Administration on Aging, Department of Health and Human Services. Statistics on the Aging Population, Introduction. http://www.aoa.gov/prof/Statistics/statistics.asp

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. news editor at Nature Biotechnology,

    Stephan Herrera

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  1. Stephan Herrera
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Herrera, S. Price controls: preparing for the unthinkable. Nat Biotechnol 24, 257–260 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0306-257

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