The World Wants Cures. America Gets the Check.
Everyone wants the next medical breakthrough. Few want the bill. The United States pays a disproportionate share of the cost of pharmaceutical innovation, while other wealthy countries hold down medicine prices and count on the research to keep coming.
Yet much of the U.S. policy debate proposes copying their approach: because Americans frequently pay more for patented medicines, it is proposed that Washington should bring U.S. prices down to an international benchmark. That focuses on who pays what while overlooking how those payments fund research. It also treats prices suppressed by…
The skinny
The skinny isn't ready yet — notes appear once the transcript is processed.