High prices and pharma innovation are not zero-sum and do not need to trade off.
Conti et al 21 [Rena; has a Ph.D. in health economics & policy at Harvard who focuses on the regulation of the biopharmaceutical market; Richard G. Frank; Senior fellow of economic studies and the director of the Center on Health Policy. He also has a Ph.D.; Jonathan Gruber; a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings and the Ford Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the Economics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 11/15/2021; Brookings; “Addressing the trade-off between lower drug prices and incentives for pharmaceutical innovation”; https://www.brookings.edu/articles/addressing-the-trade-off-between-lower-drug-prices-and-incentives-for-pharmaceutical-innovation/]//kaviWaRu
The trade-off between prices and innovation need not be this stark and, in fact, is likely avoidable. There are ready policy options that can allow us to meet the goals of both controlling prescription drug costs and promoting investments in innovative new therapies that can make us healthier. The U.S. has successfully pursued policies in the past that improved incentives for innovation and affordability, from basic science investments to programs for financing innovative start-ups. There is significant win-win potential in legislation building on the considerable strengths of drug pricing regulation proposals.