On September 19, 2019, PILMA released the following statement raising concerns with H.R. 3, the House drug pricing proposal.
The Pharmaceutical Industry Labor-Management Association (PILMA), a coalition of biopharmaceutical companies and skilled construction labor unions, has grave concerns with H.R. 3, the House Democrats drug pricing proposal. If passed, this proposal could unilaterally eviscerate the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry’s ability to research and develop new medicines, halting billions of dollars in infrastructure investment and laying off union construction workers that depend on high-quality jobs provided by the industry for their livelihoods.
The U.S. biopharmaceutical industry is one of the few manufacturing industries that maintains a presence in the U.S. supporting more than 4.7 million American jobs and is responsible for the largest share of business R&D in the U.S. economy.
PILMA is fundamentally opposed to price control measures. This bill gives the government unprecedented control over price setting of medicines in both public and private markets. Implementation would upend the market-based system that has made the U.S. a leader in medical innovation and have ripple effects through the economy, including union construction work.
PILMA members are also patients. HR 3 would stop current and future medical innovation with little to no savings realized for patients at the pharmacy counter. The U.S. develops more medicines than the rest of the world combined because of its rejection of government price controls and protection of intellectual property rights. Carving out these pillars of our democracy would be a grave mistake for the future of innovation and resulting new medicines, jobs and broader economic impacts.