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Reposted by Rachel Bonnifield

Orin Levine @orinlevine.bsky.social · Jul 18

How do you find $2.5 B in savings when every decision has consequences for access to life-saving vaccines? With Center for Global Development colleagues, here are 2 core principles and 5 suggestions. Give it a read and let us know what you think. #gavi

Janeen Madan Keller @jmadankeller.bsky.social · Jul 18

Amid a broader global health financing crisis, @gavi.org faces a $2.5B budget shortfall

Read our new @cgdev.org brief on how Gavi 6.0 can take a bigger leap w @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social @peterbaker17.bsky.social @tomldrake.bsky.social & @orinlevine.bsky.social

www.cgdev.org/publication/...

How Gavi 6.0 Can Take a Bigger Leap

Gavi’s board and leadership must stretch scarce resources to fulfill a challenging double mandate: (1) stabilizing immunization outcomes and fiscal solvency in Gavi-eligible countries facing severe he...

www.cgdev.org

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Reposted by Rachel Bonnifield

Janeen Madan Keller @jmadankeller.bsky.social · Jul 18

Amid a broader global health financing crisis, @gavi.org faces a $2.5B budget shortfall

Read our new @cgdev.org brief on how Gavi 6.0 can take a bigger leap w @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social @peterbaker17.bsky.social @tomldrake.bsky.social & @orinlevine.bsky.social

www.cgdev.org/publication/...

How Gavi 6.0 Can Take a Bigger Leap

Gavi’s board and leadership must stretch scarce resources to fulfill a challenging double mandate: (1) stabilizing immunization outcomes and fiscal solvency in Gavi-eligible countries facing severe he...

www.cgdev.org

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Reposted by Rachel Bonnifield

Center for Global Development @cgdev.org · Jul 11

WHO faces immediate fiscal crisis, w/ a 35% budget gap of $1.5bn.

@peterbaker17.bsky.social, @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social, & @jmadankeller.bsky.social argue that WHO’s leadership must chart a path of retrenchment to global leadership, health security, & public goods:
www.cgdev.org/publication/...

A Lean World Health Organization for the Global Good

In this brief—the first in the Tough Times, Tough Choices series that will target the major global health and development institutions and their funders—we propose a different approach: radically stre...

www.cgdev.org

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Reposted by Rachel Bonnifield

Janeen Madan Keller @jmadankeller.bsky.social · Jul 10

1st edition of our @cgdev.org series "Tough Times, Tough Choices" is hot off the press

Facing budget cuts, we argue WHO's leadership must chart a path of retrenchment to a lean @who.int for the global good

w/ @peterbaker17.bsky.social & @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social

www.cgdev.org/publication/...

A Lean World Health Organization for the Global Good

In this brief—the first in the Tough Times, Tough Choices series that will target the major global health and development institutions and their funders—we propose a different approach: radically stre...

www.cgdev.org

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Reposted by Rachel Bonnifield

Janeen Madan Keller @jmadankeller.bsky.social · Jun 25

Cutting US funding for @gavi.org which leads on global vaccination efforts is incredibly shortsighted and misguided

@charlesjkenny.bsky.social & I argued why in this @cgdev.org blog 👇

www.cgdev.org/blog/why-tru...

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · Jun 14

Usual caveats, obviously not all pro Palestinian people are anti Semitic, there’s lots of people outraged for very good reasons, right wing equally bad or worse, etc.

But you’re delusional if you think there’s no meaningful anti semitism or safety risk in lefty spaces.

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · Jun 14

And I am firmly in the “anti-Israel is not the same as anti-Semitism” camp, for the record.

But also not cool with setting Jewish grandmothers on fire for wrongthink, or people telling me why they think actually that’s great. (Which yes, does happen.)

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · Jun 14

Yeah you’re very, very wrong on this one.

You are aware that there have been two separate terrorist attacks on American Jews* from pro-Palestinian individuals in the past two weeks? So we’re not talking just some overheated college rhetoric.

And plenty on the far left cheering or justifying them

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Reposted by Rachel Bonnifield

Lee Crawfurd @leecrawfurd.bsky.social · Jun 12

Fantastic news that Switzerland have now submitted the paperwork triggering the start of the process that could eventually lead to better regulation on lead paint exports

ipen.org/news/lead-ch...

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Reposted by Rachel Bonnifield

Lee Crawfurd @leecrawfurd.bsky.social · Jun 3

Starting now! Tune in on CGD YouTube

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Reposted by Rachel Bonnifield

Jack Tripper @chadstanton.blacksky.app · May 14

"In Cleveland, where 20% of children have elevated lead levels, Dave Margolius, director of the Cleveland Department of Public Health say they’ve also lost CDC assistance for lead prevention.

“The percentage of children poisoned by lead in Cleveland is higher than Flint, Michigan was at its peak”"

White House to Cities: Good Luck Fighting Lead Poisoning

Centers for Disease Control staff cuts leave cities to fight lead poisoning that endangers children without federal help.

wordinblack.com

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Reposted by Rachel Bonnifield

Charles Kenny @charlesjkenny.bsky.social · May 13

The Market for Prescription Drugs Is Broken. Here’s Why Trump’s Executive Order Would Make It Worse
www.cgdev.org/blog/market-...

The Market for Prescription Drugs Is Broken. Here’s Why Trump’s Executive Order Would Make It Worse

The US pays—by far—the highest prices for on-patent prescription drugs of any country on earth. The White House just issued an executive order purporting to fix this problem. But the proposed solution...

www.cgdev.org

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Reposted by Rachel Bonnifield

Janeen Madan Keller @jmadankeller.bsky.social · May 13

📣New @cgdev.org blog on the latest Trump EO to curb high drug prices

We breakdown why the proposed policy prescription of "reference pricing" is misguided... with a healthy dose of econ101 🤓

w/ @charlesjkenny.bsky.social & @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social

www.cgdev.org/blog/market-...

The Market for Prescription Drugs Is Broken. Here’s Why Trump’s Executive Order Would Make It Worse

The US pays—by far—the highest prices for on-patent prescription drugs of any country on earth. The White House just issued an executive order purporting to fix this problem. But the proposed solution...

www.cgdev.org

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 13

We *can* negotiate and get a lower price, albeit trading off against some future innovation.

But insisting we pay the lowest price available to others will just lead pharma to raise prices elsewhere.

And that will mean we pay the same price, others get no medicine, and pharma loses money.

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 13

The key point is that other countries don’t receive a “discount” against the “real” US price.

There is no “real” or “fair market” price in monopoly.

Pharma is already profit-maximizing in every market—but other countries are willing to pay less and will walk away at the US price.

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 13

US drug prices are way too high—but the Trump EO to “fix” them would make things worse for everyone.

We break down the economics of reference pricing here — and explain why it’s a bad approach for the US 👇

With @charlesjkenny.bsky.social and @jmadankeller.bsky.social

www.cgdev.org/blog/market-...

The Market for Prescription Drugs Is Broken. Here’s Why Trump’s Executive Order Would Make It Worse

The US pays—by far—the highest prices for on-patent prescription drugs of any country on earth. The White House just issued an executive order purporting to fix this problem. But the proposed solution...

www.cgdev.org

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 12

And if we lower prices, it will just lead to overall lower pharma profits (ok) and lower private R&D spending (debatable). There is no world where other countries pay more to make up their "share" of current R&D support -- because they do not value it as much as we do.

/end

Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 12

Yes, we should absolutely regulate pharma prices. But there is no version of the world where other countries paying more leads to us paying less. That's not how any of this works.

What we do has nothing to do with other countries.

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 12

And in monopolist pricing, there is no “fair market price” to discount--there is just a price agreed between the seller and any given buyer. And there is no version of market capitalism that forces buyers to buy something for more than they are willing to pay."

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 12

But there is no subsidizing, and there is no “overcharge” in monopoly pricing.

If you can (perfectly) price discriminate, there is just what each market is willing to bear.

Because in monopoly pricing the monopolist keeps the the economic surplus from perfect price discrimination!

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 12

It is true that this price discrimination allows them to access foreign markets.

If they needed to set a single global monopolist price, it would be higher than many countries would be willing to pay – and therefore they would not have any market access or profit in those markets.

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 12

Pharma companies do not “discount” their prices in foreign countries.

They are monopolists.

In every country they set a profit-maximizing monopolist price.

Because other countries have lower willingness to pay, the monopolist profit-maximizing price is lower.

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 12

But here's where things go off the rails.

The EO asserts "a purposeful scheme in which drug manufacturers deeply discount their products to access foreign markets, & subsidize that decrease through enormously high prices in the United States."

That is a fundamental economic misunderstanding.

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 12

Third, pharma companies do price discriminate between countries. The ability to price discriminate allows them to charge lower prices to some countries, and higher prices to the US. And effectively, the ability to price discriminate also does allow them to enter and profit from foreign markets.

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Rachel Bonnifield @rachelbonnifield.bsky.social · May 12

Second, pharma companies very much do benefit from American upstream subsidy of publicly funded R&D, and downstream public funding of medicines. And they do fight any efforts to regulate drug prices. The overall behavior is outrageous, and the government should intervene to address it.

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