In an opinion column published Tuesday in the Morning Consult, National Pharmaceutical Council Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer Robert Dubois says “Why is drug spending so high?” is the wrong question to ask.
” … It assumes that spending more money on drugs is a bad thing, confusing drug spending with overall health care spending,” Dubois writes.
Dubois says higher drug spending over time could prove to be a “good thing.”
“We can only find that out by looking at whether there were concurrent improvements in well-being for patients,” he says.
Using HIV treatments as an example, Dubois says prescription drug innovations have resulted in substantially more long-term survivors.
To read Dubois’ full write up on the Morning Consult, click here.
