The federal government should drive drug development — not leave it to Big Pharma to put profits over public health – Detroit Metro Times

In Detroit, they say that we don’t have healthcare in our country, we have sick care. Under the Trump Administration, our healthcare crisis is getting worse, causing unnecessary pain and suffering for millions of Americans. Many of our neighbors are seeing their health insurance premiums double after Republicans failed to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. Families face unconscionable choices, like deciding between cutting back on groceries and utilities or going without healthcare completely. The president’s promise to lower costs on day one was a hoax. Drug prices continue to soar, consistently outpacing inflation and creating greater burdens on working families. The Trump Administration has cut more than $1 trillion from essential programs like Medicaid while gutting public health agencies. Studies show that 51,000 people could die every year due to Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”

But there is nothing inevitable about this cruel and inhumane healthcare system. While residents in Southeast Michigan pay outrageous prices for prescription drugs, for example, people just across the border in Windsor, Canada, pay only 44 percent of U.S. prices. For people living with diabetes, their average cost of a vial of insulin in the U.S. is.S. is $98 or more, but insulin costs less than $8 a vial to make.A more humane healthcare system is possible. We are the only major country not to have universal healthcare coverage. Instead of slashing federal support for health programs, we should be transforming our healthcare system — putting people over profit and taking on price gouging in the pharmaceutical industry. As one of us (Brown) argued in a recent proposal, a powerful way to do just that would be to create a new institute at the National Institutes of Health to pursue full-cycle drug development in the public interest. That’s why the other of us (Rep. Tlaib) introduced The Medicines for the People Act, which would develop new, high-quality medications in the public sector and distribute them to all Americans at not-for-profit rates.

Other attempts to rein in Big Pharma have fallen short because they haven’t addressed the root problem: an industry built to serve shareholders first and foremost doesn’t prioritize public health. The profit-first model of medicine we have now produces the world’s highest drug prices, more copycat drugs than real breakthroughs, and an inordinate influence over politics. All that could change if we passed the Medicines for the People Act.

The previously mentioned proposal outlines the idea in detail and asserts that “a strategic public pharmaceutical research and development program” would represent “a systemic solution to the monopoly that Big Pharma currently has on our medicines supply…and could set a new bottom line for drug development: instead of maximizing shareholder value, it could seek to maximize social value.” The report suggests that a new institute be set up at the National Institutes of Health to pursue full-cycle drug development in the public interest. And that’s just what the Medicines for the People Act sets out to do.

To achieve this, the new institute created by this legislation would open up innovation and direct it towards the areas of greatest need. Additionally, it would operate transparently, sharing its data both on costs and scientific development, speeding up the discovery process across the industry. Moreover, it would ensure public return on investment and act as a competitive balance to Big Pharma, reducing its disproportionate influence in the industry as well as over our elected officials. Lastly, managed as a public utility, the new institute could distribute drugs to Americans at cost or even below cost when necessary to meet public health or equity goals.

Publicly-produced medicines save lives. In recent months, an outbreak of infant botulism — a rare but life-threatening condition — spread through contaminated baby formula. Fortunately for dozens of children and their families, the California Department of Public Health developed the world’s first (and only) infant botulism treatment, which it distributes at cost. The treatment, called BabyBIG, was successfully administered, and so far no deaths have been reported in the outbreak. The Medicines for the People Act demonstrates how the public sector could produce many more groundbreaking not-for-profit drugs like BabyBIG proactively, and at scale.

The essential medicines that Americans need not only to survive but thrive should never be out of reach. The Medicines for the People Act would channel federal biomedical development funds where they can be used most efficiently and effectively to meet the health needs of our society both today and into the future. Healthcare is a human right, and it’s past time we start treating it as such in our country. The U.S. has a long way to go to fully end our for-profit healthcare system, but enacting the Medicines for the People Act would be a huge step in the right direction. We can provide an equitable, sustainable, and healthy future for all. Together, we can reclaim medicine as a public service.

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