Who we are

No Patient Left Behind (NPLB) is a network of innovators, investors, economists, healthcare professionals, patients, and others with a stake in a fair and ever improving healthcare system generating both rigorous, independent research and engaging educational materials to support biomedical affordability and innovation.

Our partnerships with leading economists and academics inform our work educating stakeholders and policymakers about balanced policy solutions that enable every patient to afford the drugs prescribed by their doctor at low or no out-of-pocket cost — while also preserving the incentives for investment that spur the development of new, life-saving treatments.

Our history

In 2020, Peter Kolchinsky, a biotech investor, scientist, and author, founded No Patient Left Behind (NPLB) with a group of like-minded individuals to protect and promote the biotech social contract that provides society with affordable biomedical innovation.

“We should afford new medicines together out of the insurance premiums we all pay rather than burdening the few people who happen to need treatment today with high out-of-pocket costs.

Why are there even copayments for insulin or chemo? No one pretends to have diabetes or cancer to try to get those treatments. Out-of-pocket costs merely serve to deter appropriate treatments, which is cruel and counter-productive.

Let’s reform insurance to lower costs for patients, which is to say eventually all of us, so that we can pay for all of this innovation together.

And when new medicines go generic, we all get more value for what we all paid for them, and industry is spurred to create even better medicines that will someday go generic, too. That’s our goal. That’s the biotech social contract. And all of us have a stake and therefore a role to play in upholding it.”

—Peter Kolchinsky

Our Positions

We’ve remained committed to solutions that lower costs for patients and preserve the pursuit of future cures.

Expanding insurance, lowering out-of-pocket costs

Cap out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 for all marketplace plans and smooth payments over the year.

Require insurance plans to use prior authorization to confirm appropriate prescribing by doctors but not to serve as gratuitous friction to prescribing that allows the plan to claim to cover a medicine while functionally denying coverage.

Expand access to insurance through marketplace subsidies and regulatory reform.

Ensuring that drugs go generic

End patent games. Congress must stop “shenanigans” that block or delay generic entry

In cases where a drug has not gone generic within 13 years of launch, price regulation can bring a drug’s price down to generic-like levels to ensure that society enjoys the savings intended by the patent system and drug pricing policy such as Hatch-Waxman.

Preserving innovation for those still waiting for a cure

Protect incentives for investment and innovation by restoring small molecule parity.

Demand that insurance fully cover new, life-saving medicines by demonstrating the societal value of innovation.

Encourage European and other allies to properly value new medicines through international trade deals. We all stand to benefit from better medicines.