Assignment Task:
Impact of pharmaceutical price regulations on patient health outcomes and social welfare has remained a contentious and much debated health policy issue for the past several years across the developed as well as developing world. These legislations can curb drug costs and thus potentially improve affordability as well as access to medicines, improve patient adherence to their medications, and consequently, treatment outcomes. However, other arguments warn against far-reaching unintended negative consequences. Of greatest concern is the stifling of pharmaceutical research and development. Novel drug discovery and development is an inherently expensive, time-consuming and risky process, a fact that is often used to justify the high costs of branded medicines. Several studies have consistently shown that diminished pharmaceutical revenues and profitability lead to reduction in drug R&D investments, resulting in the introduction of fewer new molecules per year [Citation8,Citation9]. According to recent estimates, while US had access to nearly 90% of novel medicines launched between 2011 and 2018, in other developed countries where price control mechanisms operate, the availability of new medicines was only 47% [Citation10]. In addition, the introduction of these novel drugs was typically delayed by more than a year in the latter as compared to US. In the analysis by Golec and Vernon, between 1985 and 2004 there was a significant reduction in the R&D spending by EU pharmaceutical. Need Assignment Help?