Making Medicine Affordable
Pharmaceutical drugs too often are so expensive that the people who need them cannot afford them. AIDS is a case in point. More than 1 million people in the United States are living with HIV. Each year, another 56,000 Americans are infected with HIV and 18,000 people die from AIDS in the U.S. Although medicine can slow or even halt the advance of HIV, many Americans diagnosed as HIV positive are not taking the medicine they need because they can't afford it. That's why Sen. Bernie Sanders recently introduced the Prize Fund for HIV/AIDS Act.
The bill is one of two proposals to reform the pharmaceutical innovation and pricing system. While one is designed to address the entire pharmaceutical sector, a new, narrower bill - the Prize Fund for HIV/AIDS Act - is designed specifically to spur development of and enhance access to new HIV/AIDS medicines by rewarding innovation while keeping prices down. It would lower prices by allowing generic versions of new drugs as soon as they hit the market and reward the innovator of the product from a separate prize fund. Monopoly barriers that keep drug prices sky-high would be eliminated, allowing those living with HIV and those suffering from AIDS to access the most effective treatments right away.
Patents would no longer be used to block generic competition. Instead, they would be used as a claim on significant prize funds for real innovation. The Prize Fund for HIV/AIDS would replace monopoly control of the HIV/AIDS treatment marketplace with a rationally administered prize fund of more than $3 billion that would be awarded based on the therapeutic advantages of new treatments. The cost of this fund would be far more than offset by the savings to consumers, private insurers and government insurance programs. Under the current system, $9.1 billion a year is spent on HIV/AIDS medicines.
AIDS was first diagnosed three decades ago. Progress has been made in treating the once always deadly disease. The fact remains, however, that the number of Americans waiting for life-saving medicines increased dramatically. During the last 14 months, waiting lists for Aids Drug Assistance Programs in states across the country have swelled from 361 people in January 2010 to more than 8,300 people this spring.
"If a treatment that is literally a matter of life and death for a person living with HIV/AIDS can be produced for a mere fraction of the average retail price, we must do everything possible to get them the medicine they need at a price they can afford," Sanders said.
