Pointing out that there could be an innovation–access tradeoff is often too simplistic, however. Some policy proposals on drug pricing that would broaden access might also stifle innovation, but others would change incentives for the type of innovation the pharmaceutical industry invests in—an innovation–innovation tradeoff. The aim of these approaches is not necessarily to change the rate of innovation but to change its composition, which would reduce some types of innovation we have now and encourage other types that would yield greater social value.
That’s from a new Annals of Internal Medicine commentary by Rachel Sachs and me. It’s technically gated, but the desktop site shows the first page, which happens to include the entire text, lacking only affiliations, disclaimer, disclosures (none), references, and the like.
