Affordable Drugs

In addition to the health challenges they face, patients must also contend with the financial burden that comes with medical care needs that may sometimes last a lifetime for them or their families. From an individual to the national level, the growing cost of health care—and of pharmaceuticals in particular—has produced a new urgency because of the effects of these growing costs on the country’s ability to meet other societal obligations while remaining economically competitive. Devoting such a large share of the nation’s fiscal resources to this one particular human need limits investments in other national priorities, from education to infrastructure to the environment, thus affecting international competitiveness, jobs, quality of life, and standard of living.