Veto this bill

In passing a prescription drug price control bill (“Price controls,” April 13 editorial), Maine’s Legislature cast a vote against the research and innovation that is our best hope for curing disease and curbing health care costs. Fortunately, common sense and sound policy have a chance to prevail, in the form of a veto by Gov. Angus King.

Mainers do not have to look far to see the harm price controls do to the quality of health care. In Canada, patients must endure long waits for treatment of heart disease and cancer. They also have to wait months or even years longer than Americans to get access to new medicines and for them to be reimbursed under provincial programs.

The bill would give the wrong signal to innovators, including Maine’s nascent biotechnology industry. Nobody wants to risk years of work and hundreds of millions of dollars researching a medicine only to have the government control the price. Capital would flow to other industries where the opportunity of returns is commensurate with the risks, and patients would be deprived of potential cures.

Gov. King would be doing a public service by vetoing this bill that would hurt patients and hurt medical progress. Alan F. Holmer President and CEO Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Washington, D.C.