Antitrust in pharma good – monopolization destroys vaccine innovation.

Monopolization also tends to discourage research spending and depress innovation. One reason: merging companies tend to cut research spending. Both Pfizer and Valeant Pharmaceuticals, for example, cut their R&D spending after acquisitions. Academic studies confirm that mergers tend to depress innovation among drug companies. Indeed, many drug companies have turned to mergers and acquisitions to make up for their lack of innovation—acquiring firms with promising or profitable drugs rather than developing such drugs in house.

These developments and tactics have created the current American pharmaceutical landscape. Drug companies grow larger, pursue more mergers and acquisitions, and raise prices. Nearly all Americans have felt the effects of this skewed and unequal market.