Tomas J. Philipson

Pharmaceutical pills are seen in North Andover, Massachusetts, on June 15, 2018. (Elise Amendola/AP)

Tomas J. Philipson: Price controls on medicines are stymieing innovation. Trump’s plan will make it worse.

May 20, 2026 at 5:00 a.m.

Proponents of price controls are wagering that savings on medicines will outweigh the lost benefits. The opposite is true.

A board displays prescription drug price discounts to be available at TrumpRx.gov after President Donald Trump spoke in the Oval Office of the White House on Oct. 10, 2025, in Washington. Trump is announcing a deal with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to lower U.S. drug prices. (Andrew Harnik/Getty)

Tomas J. Philipson: Donald Trump’s drug-pricing pressure is working — but it requires nuance

November 7, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

Drugmakers feel empowered to resist foreign price controls — confident that the Trump administration will have their backs.

Bottles of medicine ride on a belt at a pharmacy warehouse in Florence, New Jersey, on July 10, 2018. Boosting domestic drug production and ensuring supply chain security are important goals. (Julio Cortez/AP)

Tomas J. Philipson: How Donald Trump can safeguard our drug supply

September 4, 2025 at 5:00 a.m.

In the event of a conflict, or even just trade tensions, China could restrict drug exports and threaten hundreds of thousands of American patients.

An illustration depicts cells in an Alzheimer's affected brain with abnormal levels of the beta-amyloid protein clumping together to form plaques, shown here in brown, that collect between neurons and disrupt cell function. Abnormal collections of the tau protein accumulate and form tangles, shown here in blue, within neurons, harming synaptic communication between nerve cells.

Tomas Philipson: By avoiding funding Alzheimer’s research, the government is cutting seniors’ life spans

May 18, 2023 at 3:59 p.m.

Millions of patients and their caregivers breathed a collective sigh of relief when drugmaker Eli Lilly recently announced its new experimental Alzheimer's medication appears to slow cognitive decline by 35%....

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