Puerto Rico can't afford price controls

Congress may soon inadvertently wreck Puerto Rico’s economy.

Lawmakers are considering imposing European-style price controls on prescription drugs. That would cause American biotech companies to lose billions in revenue and inevitably force them to slash research and development budgets, cancel plans to build new factories, and lay off workers. One recent study estimates that the price controls, if applied to all prescriptions filled through Medicare and Medicaid, would reduce biotech companies’ revenue by 49% and result in a nearly equivalent cut to research and development spending.