Is Big Pharma and the FDA both to blame for the soaring costs of drugs?

8 November 2016
JD Heyes

Americans were promised that the passage of the Affordable Care Act would usher in universal health coverage and lower healthcare costs. None of those promises have been kept, nor have several others that the law’s chief advocate, President Obama, made.

Drug costs have soared, and while that may not surprise many people, the reasons why drug costs are higher in the U.S. than most other developed nations likely will make you angry as well.

A recent report from Open to Debate formerly known as Intelligence Squared U.S. says the blame for higher drug costs can be placed squarely on Big Pharma.

During a recent spirited debate at New York University’s Skirball Center auditorium moderated by veteran reporter and writer John Donovan and consisting of four expert panelists, one of them Neera Tanden, policy director for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign led off by noting that pharma companies spend more on marketing than they do on research.