Drugs and How Companies are Incetivized

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 Currently, The number of new drugs emerging in the U.S. pharmaceutical market is at a low point. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved an average of 22.6 new drugs per year from 2005 through 2009, down from 37.2 a decade earlier.  Due to this, there has been a push in creating new incentives for drug companies to start making new drugs.

This article addresses the issue of pros from incentives for new drugs by explaining how government policy has changes to encourage new drugs to be put out on the market.  It explains the various outcomes that occur due to increase in drug production, as well as acts Congress has passed to further research and development of drugs.  

Not only does having new incentives help speed up drug development and production, but it also helps re-purpose drugs in a quick and affordable way to tackle new drugs that were thought to be incurable.  In the article, "Creating New Economic Incentives for Re-purposing Generic Drugs," it states how, "Policymakers from academia, industry, and government have called for federal initiatives to stimulate drug development. Most proposals target the intellectual property environment, because market-exclusivity periods, usually supported by patents, foster revenue generation in the pharmaceutical market.  Having more incentives boosts the pharmaceutical market, and help companies that are looking to make money be ready to pump out more drugs.  This will also help them not spend as much money on drugs by re-purposing, in return lowering the price for the consumer.

I believe after reading all the research is that having incentives to create new drugs is a positive outcome.  In doing this, companies will see the reward they can take from having new drugs and will make them.  The world will benefit from having newer and more effective drugs on the market.  The government will benefit from having a increase in the economy for pharmaceutical sales.  The only problem which could come is the price of the drugs, but that is being dealt with by means of re-purposing drugs like in the article linked above.

• Does less or more government intervention help increase research and development of new drugs?
• Should companies be forced to share research so development of new drugs can become faster and more efficient?
• Is it ethical for the FDA to withhold experimental drugs to be tested on patients who are terminally ill?