ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly examines seven “roadblocks” that hinder the creation of effective competitive regulatory mechanisms for controlling pharmaceutical prices, and ultimately capping global pharmaceutical profits in a manner supporting socially just and sustainable innovation. It uses the term “competitive regulatory mechanisms” in its broadest sense – to include all attempts to regulate price and access, allowing either greater price competition within the pharmaceutical sector and/or greater access to affordable medicines. In creating new domestic accessibility and innovation policies, it is critical to conduct a regulatory audit beyond obvious competition and intellectual property rules to ensure that the benefits secured through their competitive regulation are not lost through other farcical (ineffective and impractical) unrelated “patches”. Similarly, laws regarding the scope of permissible disclosure by the government of confidential business information submitted to it might prevent the disclosure of necessary data on pricing transparency to relevant governmental organizations.
