Research & Insights
The Drug Pricing Lab conducts non-partisan, independent research. We make our work accessible and informative to policymakers and the general audience alike. Browse our featured research or explore our work by article type.
Featured Research
Our featured research highlights our latest and most impactful work.
Featured Research
Pharmaceutical Products and Their Value
Steep increases in prices and spending on prescription drugs in the United States have triggered public outrage and questions about their value.
Value in Health
03/29/2020
Featured Research
Cost Consequences of the 340B Drug Discount Program
Unintended consequences of the 340B drug discount program alter physician prescribing habits, widen the disparity in hospital profits, and increase list prices of drugs to compensate for revenue losses.
JAMA Viewpoint
05/15/2013
Featured Research
Fact Check: Time to Market for New Drugs in U.S.…
Drug prices in the U.S. are highest among developed countries, effectively setting the upper bound for reference prices elsewhere.
Drug Pricing Lab
10/11/2019
Featured Research
Impact of President's Budget and Point of Sale Rebate Proposal…
Milliman analyzes the impact of the proposed rule to implement point of sale rebates in Medicare Part D.
Drug Pricing Lab
03/08/2019
Featured Research
Abandon Biosimilars as Biologics are Natural Monopolies
Biosimilars will not effectively lower the price of biologic drugs after the period of market exclusivity.
HA Blog
04/15/2019
Academic Literature
Academic literature is reviewed by peer experts in a scientific field before it is approved for publication. The acceptance of our opinions and research after this vetting process indicates its relevance to current policies and other important drug and device issues.
Academic Literature
Pharmaceutical Products and Their Value: Lessons Learned and the Path…
Value-based pricing has emerged as an alternative to prices determined by what the market will bear. But which agreements are truly "value-based"?
Value in Health
03/29/2021
Academic Literature
Priceless Knowledge: Attitudes and Awareness Around Drug Pricing Among US…
Medical students' education covers topics spanning health, disease, and treatment, but what about drug pricing and their role as prescribers?
Medical Science Educator
01/13/2021
Academic Literature
Who Is Sowing Seeds of Confusion About The QALY?
Industry sponsorship of patient advocacy groups opposing the QALY threatens to undermine not just the QALY but also an objective analysis of policy decisions.
Health Affairs
07/24/2020
Academic Literature
CMS's Proposed Medicaid Best Price Loophole for Value-Based Purchasing of…
The administration has proposed a loophole in the Medicaid Best Price rules that would dismiss linking the drug's effectiveness to its price.
HA Blog
07/06/2020
Academic Literature
Pharmaceutical Products and Their Value
Steep increases in prices and spending on prescription drugs in the United States have triggered public outrage and questions about their value.
Value in Health
03/29/2020
Academic Literature
Understanding the Rewards of Successful Drug Development: Thinking Inside the…
The ability to charge high prices is only one component of a complex system of risks and rewards that underlies pharmaceutical innovation.
NEJM
01/30/2020
Academic Literature
Medicare Negotiation: A "Too Little" or "Too Late" Framework for…
Recent draft pieces of legislation and regulation take aim at the rising cost of drugs, targeting drugs that claim the largest share of the health care budget and that face limited competition from generics or biosimilars.
NEJM
11/28/2019
Academic Literature
Abandon Biosimilars as Biologics are Natural Monopolies
Biosimilars will not effectively lower the price of biologic drugs after the period of market exclusivity.
HA Blog
04/15/2019
Academic Literature
US Drug Prices And R&D, Take 2: A Reply To…
To answer Health Affairs responses, Peter Bach and Nancy Yu point back to the research, emphasizing the original intent of the conservative R&D cost assumptions.
Health Affairs Blog
07/27/2017
Academic Literature
Prevalence of Off-Label Use and Spending Among Patent-Protected Chemotherapies
The prevalence of off-label anticancer drug use is not well characterized.
JCO
02/19/2013
Business and Popular Press
Our expertise and opinions regarding drug pricing and development are sought by journalists for both Business and Popular Press. Our editorial writings, often in collaboration with other experts, allows us to comment in a broader forum.
Articles
The Drugs at the Heart of Our Pricing Crisis
The US drug pricing system is broken, but not irreparable. For large-molecule biologic drugs, enter: Production Plus Profit Pricing (P-quad, pronounced like Ahab's seagoing vessel).
NYTimes
03/15/2021
Articles
COVID-19 Reduced Average Life Expectancy of Americans by Five Days,…
The CDC made a mistake.
STAT
02/25/2021
Articles
Instead of debating 'first-shot' vs 'set-aside' vaccine approaches, hospitals' study…
Hospitals could start studies of their own employees to answer important questions, including whether the first-shot approach has downsides when compared to the set-aside strategy.
STAT
01/04/2021
Articles
After 4 Years of Trump, Medicare and Medicaid Badly Need…
Many promising ideas won't work as expected, and that's all the more reason for CMS to evaluate how medical care is delivered to its patients.
NYTimes
12/01/2020
Articles
Trump's Drug-Pricing Ideas Would Cost Taxpayers a Bundle
Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies would stand to make a lot more money.
Bloomberg Opinion
09/29/2020
Articles
We can't tackle the pandemic without figuring out which Covid-19…
There may be several Covid-19 vaccines by winter, but there will also need to be a study comparing the viruses to one another as part of rolling out widespread vaccination.
STAT
09/24/2020
Articles
The Science on Coronavirus is Topsy-Turvy. That's Fine.
Urgency demands patience, because advancement is always a product of missteps.
NYTimes
04/30/2020
Articles
Drop in Cancer Deaths Reflect Failures of Our Society. Really.
Despite declining cancer death rates, the nation still presents societal failures to improve the state of our population's health.
The Boston Globe
02/21/2020
Articles
Dissecting PhRMA's Opposition to H.R. 3 Lower Drug Costs Now…
Dr. Peter Bach responds to PhRMA's stance of opposition to H.R. 3 Lower Drug Costs Now Act of 2019.
STAT News
10/11/2019
Articles
Time to Throw in the Towel on Biosimilars
Peter Bach and Mark Trusheim of MIT Sloan School of Management underscore the drawbacks of Washington's preferred solution to introduce competition for biologics, the biosimilar model.
WSJ
08/21/2019
Multimedia
We are invited to participate in a variety of media events including lectures, interviews, and academic meetings. These provide another opportunity to explain this complicated issue of drug pricing to different audiences.
Reports
We conduct thorough investigations and studies of related various aspects of drug prices. When concluded, they are published to share our findings with academic, policymakers, and the public.
Reports
Biosimilars: Market Changes do not equal policy success
Numerous articles and reports have trumpeted biosimilar market growth, but it's critical we do not lose sight of the sole objective for creating the biosimilar market: to reduce the cost of older biologic drugs for society and taxpayers.
Drug Pricing Lab
03/15/2021
Reports
Bottom-Up Pricing Estimate for P-quad
How much would biologic drugs cost under P-quad pricing? Two approaches to estimating fully loaded costs plus a profit (10% and 20% examined) suggest net discounts from current prices would be at least 65% to 75%
Drug Pricing Lab
03/12/2021
Reports
Modeling P-quad
The Drug Pricing Lab engaged Milliman to conduct an independent analysis of the Production Plus Profit Pricing (P-quad) policy proposal. The Milliman analysis estimates the projected spending on U.S. biologic and biosimilar drugs under a referent scenario where there is no biosimilar entry or competition, the existing ‘status quo’ scenario under the current biosimilar environment, and the Drug Pricing Lab’s P-quad policy proposal.
This report was commissioned by Drug Pricing Lab.
This report was commissioned by Drug Pricing Lab.
Milliman
03/12/2021
Reports
Ethics of Clinical Trials to Evaluate Biosimilars
Biosimilars require extensive, expensive, and time-consuming human testing prior to market entry, a process vastly different than generics. So why are we still doing them?
MedRx IV
03/09/2021
Reports
Remdesivir Less Expensive for "Government Programs"? Not So Fast.
Two options are proposed if Gilead wishes to offer the discounts to the full array of government programs.
Drug Pricing Lab
07/01/2020
Reports
Blueprints for Indication-Specific Pricing
Several approaches that rewire existing reimbursement conventions as alternatives to facilitate ISP are proposed.
Drug Pricing Lab
05/19/2020
Reports
Fact Check: Time to Market for New Drugs in U.S.…
Drug prices in the U.S. are highest among developed countries, effectively setting the upper bound for reference prices elsewhere.
Drug Pricing Lab
10/11/2019
Reports
Impact of President's Budget and Point of Sale Rebate Proposal…
Milliman analyzes the impact of the proposed rule to implement point of sale rebates in Medicare Part D.
Drug Pricing Lab
03/08/2019
Reports
Overview of Original Subscription Model and Features of LA and…
An overview of the original subscription-based Netflix model proposed and the proposals put forth by Louisiana and Washington.
Drug Pricing Lab
01/29/2019
Reports
DPL Responds to HHS RFI for IPI Drug Pricing Model…
Our response to the Trump administration’s Request for Information on implementing an international pricing index model for Medicare Part B drugs.
Drug Pricing Lab
12/31/2018
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