Life Sciences
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Innovation is essential to promoting human health, agricultural productivity, and ecological sustainability. ITIF’s Center for Life Sciences Innovation conducts research supporting advances in human biotechnology; pharmaceuticals; and health care policy outside the realm of IT.
Featured
How Skeptics Misconstrue the Link Between Drug Prices and Innovation
A recent article in the British Medical Journal contends “high drug prices” are neither necessary nor justified to sustain biopharmaceutical innovation. But it misrepresents and misinterprets the facts, highlighting how faulty the rationale is for drug price controls.
The Hidden Toll of Drug Price Controls: Fewer New Treatments and Higher Medical Costs for the World
When nations implement pharmaceutical price controls, they reduce pharmaceutical revenues, which then reduces investments in further R&D, limiting future generations’ access to new novel treatments needed to fight diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and diabetes.
Testimony to the Senate Finance Committee on “Prescription Drug Price Inflation”
Expenditures for retail prescriptions have been roughly stable for the past two decades as a share of total U.S. health-care expenditures. Instead of applying broad price controls, policymakers should promote affordability and mitigate out-of-pocket costs for individuals.
More Publications and Events
August 28, 2024|Blogs
Alzheimer’s Disease Next Game Changer: TauRx Pharmaceutical’s Novel Tau Aggregation Inhibitor
TauRx is revolutionizing Alzheimer's treatment with a novel drug that targets toxic brain proteins, offering fresh hope in the fight against this devastating disease.
August 26, 2024|Blogs
Fact of the Week: The Price of Drugs Has Increased 40 Percent Less Than the Average US Product
Despite popular rhetoric around the supposedly exorbitant prices of prescription drugs, the price of pharmaceutical products has increased far slower than the rate of inflation.
August 16, 2024|Blogs
Innovative Cure For All: How CurASeal’s Plant-Based Technology Advances Bleeding Control and Wound Healing
InCurA is revolutionizing MENA's medical landscape with AI-optimized, locally produced hemostatic solutions like CurASeal, bridging the gap between innovation and accessibility while reducing reliance on global imports.
August 12, 2024|Blogs
Fact of the Week: Global R&D Investment by Biopharmaceutical Companies Was $276 Billion in 2021
A recent article found that all previous reports of the biopharmaceutical industry have grossly underestimated total research and development expenditures.
July 30, 2024|Reports & Briefings
How Innovative Is China in Biotechnology?
China used to be considered a laggard in biotech. But with a comprehensive national strategy and extensive resources now supporting the industry, it is becoming more innovative. In fact, several indicators suggest it is narrowing the innovation gap with global leaders in the West.
June 26, 2024|Presentations
The Right Prescription: Policy Priorities for Advancing Innovation in U.S. Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing
Stephen Ezell delivers a featured presentation at the 2024 national meeting of the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIMBL).
May 28, 2024|Podcasts
Podcast: The Origins and Consequences of Pharmaceutical Industry Myths, With Rob Atkinson
Rob Atkinson appeared on Elevate, the podcast of the Medical Affairs Professional Society (MAPS), to discuss the origins of negative opinions of the pharmaceutical industry and whether a for-profit model can support both innovation and the society’s best interests, topics he covered in his book Technology Fears and Scapegoats.
May 15, 2024|Blogs
The “Invent Here, Make Here” Act Should Fully Advance, Not Partially Impede, Bayh-Dole’s Mission
The bill proposes useful steps to facilitate domestic commercialization, but it overreaches in placing excessive restrictions when innovators prove unable to identify domestic manufacturing capabilities despite their best efforts.
May 13, 2024|Blogs
Advancing Biomedical Innovation With Policies Supporting Privacy-Enhancing Technologies
By improving privacy protection and facilitating secure collaborative research, privacy-enhancing technology could complement data-sharing policies and enable analysis of sensitive medical data and support biomedical innovation.
May 6, 2024|Reports & Briefings
The Relationship Between Biopharma R&D Investment and Expected Returns: Improving Evidence to Inform Policy
Better evidence is needed to evaluate the impact of policy changes on new drug development. Greater availability of government data should support more rigorous evaluations to inform evidence-based policymaking.
