Puerto Rico can’t afford price controls

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.

That would harm the U.S. economy in general. America’s biotech industry is one of the country’s largest employers and most productive industries. It supports roughly 10 million jobs and contributes over $3 trillion to annual economic output.

PUERTO RICO, SUGAR, AND CRONY CAPITALISM

But price controls would hammer Puerto Rico in particular. The island is one of the most specialized pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing hubs in the United States. In fact,