253774 S. 1137, The Medical Innovation Prize Fund Act: How De-linking R&D Incentives from Prices Will Deliver Safer, More Effective Drugs at Significantly Lower Prices

Monday, October 31, 2011: 3:15 PM

Bernard Sanders, US Senator , U.S. Senate, Washington, DC
Market exclusivity is an expensive and inefficient mechanism for rewarding investments in new drug products. It keeps prices high and access to critical life-saving treatments low. By separating research and development incentives from product prices, and by eliminating legal monopolies to sell products, it is possible to induce investments in new drugs that are medically more important; to de-incentivize R&D into duplicative products; to create competition that will drive prices down and access up; to reduce wasteful marketing and advertising; and to lower the overall social costs of producing and acquiring innovation while expanding access to that innovation.

Learning Areas:
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
- Describe the goals of the Medical Innovation Prize Fund Act. - Identify the deficiencies in our current medical R&D reward structure. - Explain why a rationally administered prize fund will yield more medically significant innovation than market monopolies.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have introduced legislation in the United States Senate to reform the current medical research and development model.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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