Letter to the Editor of TIME Magazine in response to the February 2, 2004 cover story "Why Your Medicines Cost So Much". It is expected to be published in the February 16th issue.

We welcome debate about the value Americans gain from medicines, which is why we were so disappointed in your misleading cover story "Why Your Drugs Cost So Much" [Feb. 2]. The article repeatedly used highly selective information to present its authors' opinions as news.

The examples below demonstrate this: The new Medicare law authorizes powerful private plans to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies and includes a provision prohibiting government interference with these negotiations.

TIME didn't tell its readers about the negotiations and characterized the provision (which originated in a plan developed by President Clinton) as preventing patients from obtaining savings. Yet Congress's scorekeeper, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, determined that this bill's approach-private plans driving hard bargains-achieves larger savings on drugs than do other approaches it reviewed.

TIME also failed to mention that the provision protects seniors from the government's establishing a national drug list that restricts the medicines they can choose.

The article portrayed the opposition of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the importation of drugs through Canada as protecting the pharmaceutical industry, not consumers. TIME failed to explain that the FDA is enforcing a law Congress passed in 1988 after a multi-year investigation revealed threats to the nation's drug supply, including importation.

The article should have emphasized that the Clinton Administration, as well as the Bush Administration, was unable to demonstrate that importation could be done safely and would achieve significant savings. Presumably, the dangers explain why illegal importation schemes, such as one in Springfield, Mass., often require users to sign a liability waiver-another fact TIME omitted.

TIME cited one government-agency report about a single drug to support its claim that the government plays a large role in discovering new medicines. Yet TIME failed to note that the same agency reported that the government was involved in developing only six of the 100 drugs that federal agencies most commonly buy.

In fact, pharmaceutical companies develop nearly all new medicines. American health care is changing as new medicines play a growing role in treating a broad range of conditions, with dramatically improved results. The country has taken a step forward in improving access to these medicines, with the passage of the Medicare law, which provides drug coverage to 10 million previously uninsured seniors, along with better coverage for many millions more.

We welcome a fair debate about all these issues, but TIME did a disservice to its readers by cloaking opinion as news.

Alan F. Holmer, President and CEO
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
Washington, D.C.