Drug pricing has long been a topic of fierce discussions across United States. The disapproval of a common American around baseline drug prices has been quite apparent over the years. This significance of the issue isn’t lost on Biden administration. The government has been exploring different solutions to establish a sense of control over the price-point of different drugs, and finally concrete steps are being taken. As per the official statement issued by the U.S. government, there will be an opening in the upcoming budget for negotiations over drug prices. The White House revealed in its statement that “President Biden supports reforms that would bring down drug prices by letting Medicare negotiate payment for certain high-cost drugs.”
If certain reports are to be believed, the government will also look to introduce legislation that will instantly make drug manufacturers liable to pay rebates in case the prices outpace the inflation.
The proposed reforms will also cut back federal expenses sizably, saving up almost half a trillion over the next 10 years. This saved amount can fund a variety of projects undertaken by the government to make advancements across different sectors. While Biden has emphasized on this issue during his campaign as well, turning it into a reality still remains a challenge due to limited Democratic majority in the Senate.
Nevertheless, drug prices aren’t the only channel through which U.S. government is looking to improve the healthcare sector. A proposal is prepared to allot $6.5 billion for the creation of a new National Institute of Health arm. It will be named Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). This institution is said to be inspired by the widely-respected DARPA institution (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which played a pivotal role in the creation of ground-breaking things like Internet, GPS, and a lot more that the world thought was impossible before it was created. The intention is to emulate the achievements of DARPA in more of a scientific capacity this time and make serious progression towards finding concrete answers for diseases like cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s etc.
