Biopharmaceutical Innovation
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The world is entering a promising golden age of life sciences innovation, with potentially enormous benefits for human health, productivity, and sustainability. But that vision is at risk from a host of forces that seek to hamper the fundamental business models that have enabled such innovation. ITIF’s Center for Life Sciences Innovation exists to fight back against such forces, while documenting the importance of life science innovation and the private-sector led model complemented by government support that has been so successful elevate. We conduct research, generate policy proposals, and convene members of the analytical and policymaking communities with this mission firmly in focus.
Vice President, Global Innovation Policy, and Director, Center for Life Sciences Innovation
Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
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Evidence to Inform Biopharmaceutical Policy: A Call for Research on the Impact of Public Policies on Investment in Drug Development
The scope and magnitude of the trade-off between immediate savings from lower drug prices and future health benefits from clinical development remain poorly understood and quantified. To support rigorous evaluations and inform evidence-based policymaking, it is crucial to invest in this area through research grants and improved access to federal and private data.
Evidence-Based Biopharmaceutical Policymaking: Symposium Report
There is a need for more rigorous evidence and more recent, high-quality data to inform biopharmaceutical policymaking by shedding light on the relationship between pharmaceutical firms’ expectations of financial returns from new drugs and their ability to invest in further R&D to discover future generations of drugs.
How Skeptics Misconstrue the Link Between Drug Prices and Innovation
A recent article in the British Medical Journal contends “high drug prices” are neither necessary nor justified to sustain biopharmaceutical innovation. But it misrepresents and misinterprets the facts, highlighting how faulty the rationale is for drug price controls.
The Hidden Toll of Drug Price Controls: Fewer New Treatments and Higher Medical Costs for the World
When nations implement pharmaceutical price controls, they reduce pharmaceutical revenues, which then reduces investments in further R&D, limiting future generations’ access to new novel treatments needed to fight diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and diabetes.
Testimony to the Senate Finance Committee on “Prescription Drug Price Inflation”
Expenditures for retail prescriptions have been roughly stable for the past two decades as a share of total U.S. health-care expenditures. Instead of applying broad price controls, policymakers should promote affordability and mitigate out-of-pocket costs for individuals.
More Publications and Events
October 20, 2025|Events
Beyond the Scale: The Economic Power of GLP-1 Therapies
Join ITIF on Capitol Hill for a timely discussion on how GLP-1 therapies can transform health and economic outcomes—and what policymakers should do to maximize their benefits.
October 7, 2025|Blogs
Taxing University Royalties Would Deliver Few Benefits, but Great Harms
A new proposal to tax university patent royalties would do little to benefit taxpayers while undermining the Bayh-Dole system that drives U.S. innovation, risking America’s global leadership in turning research into real-world breakthroughs.
September 24, 2025|Presentations
AI in Drug Discovery and Development
Sandra Barbosu chairs a session about AI and pharmaceuticals at the 2025 BioTechX conference.
September 24, 2025|Events
Life Sciences Innovation Forum
This forum shall explore how Argentina might accelerate growth in its life sciences sector while improving patient access to innovative medicines. It will examine the critical role of strong intellectual property frameworks and efficient regulatory systems in fostering local innovation and promoting local biomanufacturing. We will also explore how university technology transfer can leverage Argentina's established biotechnology expertise to drive sector development and economic growth.
September 22, 2025|Reports & Briefings
GTIPA Perspectives: How Smart Deregulation Can Unleash Powerful Innovations Worldwide
The mounting economic costs of burdensome regulations that exact far more costs than benefits on societies—and which in many countries have led to unchecked regulatory accumulation—and the adverse impact on innovation, productivity, and long-term growth they cause.
September 18, 2025|Testimonies & Filings
Testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health Regarding Seniors’ Access to Breakthrough Medical Technologies
Multi-cancer early detection (MCED) technologies are poised to radically transform the cancer-screening paradigm for the significant benefit of Americans’ individual and public health. Congress can play a critical role in making that transformation happen.
September 8, 2025|Blogs
America’s AI Action Plan: Implications for Biopharmaceutical Innovation
The White House’s AI Action Plan highlights how upgrading labs, data infrastructure, and research models is essential to unlock AI’s full potential in accelerating drug discovery and keeping the United States at the forefront of biopharmaceutical innovation.
August 18, 2025|Reports & Briefings
A Shot at a Healthier Future: The Transformative Potential of GLP-1s
Obesity affects over 42 percent of U.S. adults, costing the nation more than $400 billion annually. Traditional weight-loss methods alone have proved to be insufficient in addressing this growing public health burden. But GLP-1 receptor agonists now offer the potential to profoundly transform obesity care. Public policies should support their wider adoption.
July 22, 2025|Events
The Bayh-Dole Act’s Role in Stimulating University-Led Regional Economic Growth
This in-person event on Capitol Hill explored how academic research, entrepreneurship, and public-private partnerships are shaping innovation ecosystems—and what is needed to strengthen them going forward.
July 7, 2025|Blogs
Fact of the Week: The Biopharma Industry Invested $276 Billion in R&D in 2021, Significantly More Than Previously Estimated
Researchers estimate that R&D investment in the biopharma industries in 2021 was $276 billion, 170 percent greater than other commonly cited estimates.
