An Investigation of the Power of the Health and Pharmaceutical Industry with Respect to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022

Presenter

Madeleine Grace Hines

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Kevin L. Young, Department of Economics, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 3, 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board C11, Poster Showcase Room (163), Row 2 (C11-C20) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Despite a record amount spent on federal lobbying by health and pharmaceutical lobbyists in 2022, the Biden Administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act in the same year. This permitted Medicare to begin negotiations with drug manufacturers to lower prescription drug prices for Americans. Though it seems the instrumental power of the pharmaceutical industry fell short in its effort to prevent this bill from its signage to law, Americans have still not seen a substantial cost decrease of the 10 drugs selected as subject to price negotiations by the bill. Is it possible that the structural and discursive power of drug manufacturers have resulted in an irreversible monopoly on prescription drug prices? This research will investigate this power dynamic of the American health and pharmaceutical sector by identifying and quantifying each example of a time that one of the 10 listed negotiable drugs was subject to “drug hopping” since instatement of the Inflation Reduction Act, and compare the average amount spent on the drug by the consumer before and after “drug hopping.” This will be accompanied by a listing of the top corporations which manufacture each of the 10 drugs, and quantification of profit garnered by each company from the drug before and after bill instatement. Statistical analyses of this data is expected to show a strong positive correlation between “drug hopping” efforts and companies which showed profits which were higher or remained the same after the Inflation Reduction Act.

Keywords

instrumental power, prescription drug cost, discursive power

Research Area

Finance

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