Guest Post: Urging legislators to again reject price controls and government intervention on drug prices

This guest post was submitted by Arik Spencer, the president and CEO of the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, and Richard Glynn, the executive director of BioND in Grand Forks.

The Greater North Dakota Chamber and the Bioscience Association of North Dakota share a common goal of supporting and growing businesses in North Dakota.

We work every day to ensure that our state has the best business climate in the nation as well as promote an entrepreneurial ecosystem that will encourage growth in the bioscience field.

Again this Session, legislators are being asked to consider having the government artificially set prices for life-saving prescription drugs. Government price controls, especially at the state level, are seemingly well-intentioned but have unintended harmful consequences.

This harm is demonstrated in a recent report we jointly commissioned from the Challey Institute at North Dakota State University called, Pharmaceutical Price Controls Destroy Innovation and Harm Patients.

Researcher Raymond March, PhD, finds that imposing artificial price controls results in lower production from manufacturers coupled with diminished innovation investments.

Currently, developing a new medication can take more than ten years and billions of dollars. Given the past couple years, we can see how advances in this field have improved conditions and quality of life – now is not the time to stifle growth.

We are urging legislators to again reject price controls and government intervention. North Dakotans need free market principles to play out in this field – ensuring competition and innovation gives access and innovation their opportunity to flourish.