Paul Mirengoff… Ever So Gingerly… Opines That Trump’s Drug Prices Black Sharpie Scribble… Is Hasty, And Ill-Considered; Thus Likely Impotent.

Mr. Mirengoff is correct this morning, directionally-speaking: drug prices are high in the US. Then he goes on (mostly accurately), to opine as to why that state of affairs persists. The US also enjoys (if one has enough cash) access to the best health care and most revolutionary drugs on the planet — due to vast R&D spending by pharmacos.

[It costs a little over $2 billion now, per drug candidate on average, to seek market approval.]

Then in a “faint praise — stronger skeptic” mode — he gets the nut of it all right, also: Trump’s Sharpie scribbles will likely be useless, because they do nothing to address root causes of high prices (and that is even assuming away the problem that Trump lacks authority to set prices, at all).

Specifically, in the end — he makes an accurate observation about Trump’s NIH idiocy.

So I repeat his here — though far-too-gently stated — Paul is correct in his conclusions:

…[I]t seems clear that if Trump’s Executive Order has its intended effect, the pharmaceutical industry might very well face a double whammy. It will likely lose much of the money it now spends to fund research and its ability to benefit from government-funded research in the U.S. will be sharply reduced.

I’m not arguing against trying to lower the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs. Trump is right to try to bring these prices down. However, he and his team should think carefully — more carefully than I believe they have — about the consequences of slashing funding for NIH and for biomedical research at university labs….

So… this is some progress, at least — from Paul’s keyboard.