Nine members of the Democratic Party expressed sentiments in the form of a written letter to the Speaker of the House against lower drug pricing in the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill currently making its way through the United States Congress.

The justification for maintaining current drug pricing is supposedly to maintain our innovation in industry which surpasses that of the European market. A concerned citizen could look at who is providing big donations to those nine representatives.

“The statements of US government officials and industry representatives imply that the US market is paying for the development of most new drugs. There is ample evidence that domestic profits in several countries that have price or profit control cover research and development expenditures. For example, in Canada, domestic sales on average are about 10 times the research and development costs. In the United Kingdom, the pharmaceutical industry invests more of its revenues from domestic sales in research and development than do companies in the United States. Statements by US government officials and industry representatives also imply that the United States is becoming a dominant source of innovation because of its lack of drug price regulation. From a purely theoretical standpoint, these statements are troubling because they imply a country-specific source of innovation. The industry is private, however, not government owned, and operates in a worldwide market. It is also doubtful that pure price considerations would affect where a drug was developed, and more strategic considerations such as the availability of drug-specific research resources and infrastructure in a particular country may be a more important consideration.”

American Journal of Public Health, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866602/, accessed 9/28/2021.

I hope the voters in the constituencies of each of those representatives who signed that letter remember this budget battle.

U.S. Representative Scott Peters (CA, District 52)

U.S. Representatives Kurt Schrader (OR, District 5)

U.S. Representative Kathleen Rice (NY, District 4)

U.S. Representative Stephanie Murphy (FL, District 7)

U.S. Representative Lou Correa (CA, District 46)

U.S. Representative Marilyn Strickland (WA, District 10)

U.S. Representative Frank Mrvan (IN, District 1)

U.S. Representative Josh Gottheimer (NJ, District 5)

U.S. Representative Tony Cardenas (CA, District 29)