Health Affairs, 24, no. 6 (2005): 1684-1685 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.24.6.1684 © 2005 by Project HOPE	New Online   House Health Reform Bill   Paying for Reform   Vetting AHIP's Report   HIV/AIDS Costs   Brief: Insurance Reform   HA Blog Top 10

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Letters

Nonprofit Drug Companies

Nonprofit pharmaceutical organizations, developed similarly to the model proposed by Hale and colleagues, could help improve access to affordable and innovative drugs for patients in the United States as well as around the world. In recent years, the for-profit pharmaceutical industry has tended to focus on products that are not especially innovative but do generate a high economic return. As noted by the authors, nonprofit organizations make research decisions on the basis of their mission, and they are not stymied by stakeholder or profit expectations. In addition, with the increased scrutiny of relationships between National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and for-profit drug companies, nonprofit companies could be the answer in translating the work of NIH bench scientists into new drug therapies without creating conflict of interest.

Increased development of such companies could also lead to positive reforms in the for-profit industry. For instance, the fact that nonprofit organizations are required to make financial statements publicly available might pressure for-profit companies to release what are now heavily guarded data (research and development spending, marketing expenses, and pricing structures). That said, developing a nonprofit pharmaceutical industry might be embraced if the right incentives are created.

Nonprofit pharmaceutical organizations hold great promise as a new avenue of finding treatments for diseases affecting people in both the underdeveloped and developed world. Although more research is required, we believe that this model should be considered as a way to improve access to affordable and efficacious drugs across the globe.

Benjamin E. Klein and Kathryn J. Dalby

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