Addressing the Harms of Market-Driven Drug Development
Addressing the Harms of Market-Driven Drug Development
Stanford researchers address a persistent flaw in the U.S. health system: prioritizing treatment investment based on market potential rather than medical necessity.
The diseases causing the most suffering and death in the United States do not always attract investment in new treatments. That’s the disconnect exposed in a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, co-authored by Stanford Law School Professor Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, a leading voice on intellectual property and medical innovation policy. Stanford Health Policy Professor Joshua Salomon, a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, also served on the 16-member committee that drafted the report.
Aligning Investments in Therapeutic Development with Therapeutic Need: Closing the Gap calls out a persistent flaw in the U.S. health innovation system: Drug development is often driven more by market potential than by medical necessity. The result? Lifesaving treatments remain elusive for conditions like heart disease and mental illness – even as resources pour into more commercially promising areas such as oncology. According to the report, this misalignment not only distorts innovation but deepens health disparities and costs lives.
