Smothering U.S. Innovation Not a Smart Solution for Lowering Drug Prices – SBE Council Strongly Opposes Partisan Drug Plan

By SBE Council at 20 September, 2019, 8:59 am

NEWS

For Immediate Release

Washington, D.C. – In response to the introduction of the partisan “Lower Drug Costs Now Act” (H.R. 3), Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) president & CEO Karen Kerrigan issued the following statement:

“High health care and prescription drug costs are a major concern for entrepreneurs and their hard-working employees, but massive government intervention and a 95% potential tax on drugs are not sensible solutions. The partisan and problematic H.R. 3 will only smother the life-saving innovations that America’s bio-pharmaceutical sector works hard to produce. Small companies and individual innovators are responsible for the lion’s share of these groundbreaking innovations, and H.R. 3 will stop innovation in its tracks. Among U.S. pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing firms, 57 percent have less than 20 workers and 79 percent have less than 100 workers. This critical industry is all about risk-taking entrepreneurs.

“Big socialist policies such as H.R. 3 with its price controls and mandates, will get big socialist results: Higher costs, limited and rationed access, and stagnant innovation. We urge Speaker Pelosi to work on bipartisan solutions that maintain the dominance, competitiveness and innovative strength of this critical industry. Innovators and entrepreneurs in this industry want to save lives, and H.R. 3 will prevent them from producing the advanced drugs that do so.”

Contact:

Karen Kerrigan, SBE Council president & CEO

e-mail: kkerrigan@sbecouncil.org

SBE Council is nonpartisan advocacy, research and education organization dedicated to protecting small business and promoting entrepreneurship. For 25 years, SBE Council has worked on and advanced a range of private sector and public policy initiatives to strengthen the ecosystem for strong startup activity and small business growth. Visit www.sbecouncil.org for additional information. Twitter: @SBECouncil

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