Pharmaceutical pricing: a review of proposals to improve access and affordability of prescription drugs.

This article discusses how pharmaceutical innovation achieves remarkable improvements in human health but a significant portion of the U.S. population cannot afford prescription drugs. The author examines ways that patent protection, generics, supply chain complexity, and the cost of innovation and promotion affect access and affordability. The author then looks at the influences of marketing strategies and industry trends such as the patent cliff and pipeline for new drugs, innovations in biotechnology and genomics, comparative effectiveness analysis, and payor and employer strategies on drug prices. An analysis of reform proposals in the context of industry trends suggests that promoting generic drug use and availability through education, prohibiting authorized generics, and restricting the practice of developing follow-on drugs and discontinuing the original formulations upon patent expiration could improve access and affordability most quickly and significantly.