In Washington, D.C., no good deed ever seems to go unpunished. And so it is with innovators in our medical industry—companies that produce break through drugs, vaccines, and high-tech medical devices. As almost never before, these companies are under assault by Congress for the sin of being profitable.
The most pernicious threat is the set of price controls on drug companies contained in the Build Back Better bill that passed the House and is now before the Senate. This would take up to half a trillion dollars of profits out of drug and vaccine manufacturers—which may reduce prices in the short run at the cost of slowing the race for the cure in the next generation of wonder drugs.