Billy Tauzin, former baron of the House, current head of Phrma, and cancer survivor, spoke at last week's CEI dinner on The Miracle of the Marketplace: Harnessing Its Power -- Sharing Its Benefits.

One of the most effective parts of the talk was his description of the health rationing methods used in nations that reject a market approach:

Australians can only obtain a drug that can prevent osteoporosis after they have broken a bone. I guess no one ever told the bureaucrat in charge about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure.

In the U.K., no drugs are approved for Alzheimer’s patients over the age of 70 – when people are at greatest risk of needing it. How do they ration a medication to control macular degeneration of the eyeball? If you lose one eye, you can get a prescription for the other one.

Here in America, I hope we never get down to rationing eyeballs

Tauzin's conclusion, particularly heartfelt because he credits the drug industry with saving his own life:

One, we have to evaluate this issue from the patient’s point of view. They need access and affordability – but they also need innovation. They don’t just need the most affordable medication – they need the most effective medication. As you know here at CEI, we can’t expect to eliminate the pull of incentive and expect the push for innovation to remain. Markets just don’t work that way.

Two, let no one fool themselves into thinking that governments can control price without controlling a lot of other things – including choice, availability, and innovation. It does no long-term good to force an artificially low price, if all that does is dry up the pipeline for new and better medicines.

Three, when looking at drugs, let’s not become so fearful of risk that it clouds our minds to reward – the reward of a drug that can save lives and ease pain.

posted by James DeLong @ 3:19 PM | Pharma

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