A tipping point for medical discovery

Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines a tipping point as, “the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place.” In his 2000 best-selling novel, author Malcom Gladwell further explained the term as the moment when “an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.”

Since the middle of the 20th Century, the United States has led the world in medical discovery tipping points, with major advances against diseases like cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and Parkinson’s, just to name a few. As a former industry CEO, I’ve witnessed firsthand the impact that these achievements have had on the lives of millions of patients. Following my own treatment and surgery for a brain tumor, I gained a special appreciation for the power of what we do. Every day, biopharmaceutical and medical innovators are driven by new ideas and challenges, with a shared code guiding their efforts: discovering new treatments that fundamentally improve and extend lives.
 
{mosads}Like most industries, failure often occurs well before success. The costs – human and financial – are always significant. In recent years, a number of major pharmaceutical companies have reluctantly announced plans to halt development of innovative medicines to treat costly and debilitating diseases, despite many indicators pointing to their likely success. Only 12 percent of medicines entering clinical trials make it to market.
 
The current debate over prescription drug pricing is also a tipping point – with potentially long-lasting, unintended consequences if we don’t embrace a fact-based conversation. While I’ve always believed that scrutiny is a good thing – in short, it’s a prerequisite for innovation, and society and science often stand to benefit – it must be paired with a call for unprecedented private-sector investment and focus in this new era of medical discovery. 
 
A healthy level of this type of scrutiny will contribute to the development of breakthrough treatments that will change how we treat the world’s most pressing medical challenges. We must be prepared to defend costly investments, explain why and how we’re making specific decisions, and speak in both qualitative and quantitative terms.
 
Just the opposite, letting the debate go too far will ultimately work against the universal and non-partisan objective of improving and saving lives. For millions, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The widely reported breakthroughs in Hepatitis C, cancer, cystic fibrosis, cholesterol management and other therapeutic areas are unlike anything that we’ve seen in modern medicine. While they might have appeared to pop up overnight, they represent years (in some cases, decades) of costly private sector-led research and development against the very real prospect of failure.
 
When asked about why drugs are so expensive, the frequently heard response has been their “value” to individual patients and society writ-large. This is undoubtedly true, but there’s a far bigger proposition that both sides of the debate are missing: we will not address the growing prevalence of chronic disease and stem rising health care costs without medical discovery.
 
The U.S. currently spends nearly $3 trillion a year on health care, with hospital care and physician/clinical services accounting for more than half of every dollar spent. Ironically, prescription drugs account for only 10 cents on the dollar and there’s a case to be made that we need to be spending more, not less, to help bring down costs in other areas. For example, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, our nation’s health care system could save $213 billion annually with proper adherence to medication.
 
As insurance premiums increase, we also have a genuine opportunity to align innovation and cost priorities by looking at what we’re spending in health care on a macro level. At the same time, we need to have a candid conversation about how to use every tool in our toolbox to effectively manage and fight disease.

The current drug pricing conversation can be a healthy and productive one, but going too far with it is equally harmful for patients and innovation – an ill-timed tipping point with long-term unintended consequences for the world’s patients. Across our health care system, we’re always at our best when the focus remains squarely on the patient and what’s in his or her best interest.
 
Only then do we ensure that the breakthroughs of today turn into the much-needed cures of tomorrow.

Brennan is the former CEO of AstraZeneca.