US Drug Pricing Debate

Other countries already develop drugs. They just charge more in the US market.

Aren't drugs very expensive in the US, too?

There's a lot of room between extortion and free. In other countries, drug manufacturers still make money without charging the extortionate prices you often see in the US.

I think it happens with medicines though not voluntarily. Basically in the US the drug companies have bought out the politicians so the price of medicines are sky high. Meanwhile in many countries like India, the government has negotiated or busted patents to get affordable medicines. The drug companies can live with this as long as Americans pay for the full cost of medicines.

"In Europe, drug prices are set by governments, not by pharmaceutical companies the way they are in the U.S. On average, the difference between the price of one drug in the U.S. and the same drug in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. was 50 percent, an analysis by the consulting firm McKinsey has found.“U.S. consumers are in fact subsidizing other countries’ public health systems, at least with respect to drug pricing,” Jacob Sherkow, an associate professor at New York Law School

Why does the US consumer of said medications subsidize many other countries who have access to the same medications for a fraction of the US sticker price?

It's not nearly the difference that it would appear ... Think about the per capita incomes of both countries and you'll find the drug is prohibitively expensive in both countries. If you look at it from the drug companies perspective; it's a case of maximizing their profits in both markets and competition is just one factor in doing so.

Does not matter how much it costs in other countries. the reality is that pharma companies make their revenues in the US at the level of 70 or 80 percent. You can be sure the level of investment would be very different if prices in the US were much lower. In practice the US is subsidizing drug development for the rest of the world.

in some part of europe, we have national healthcare so basically people don't think they are paying their medications, like there was some magic money.in that case, you don't care if you drug cost 10€ or 2000€ because you aren't spending a single € from your own wallet, at least if you don't factor in taxes.Contrary to the USA where it's a much more responsible market, people do pay for the medications or they get it paid by their own insurance but it cost them dir

The Us subsidizes European drug prices:https://www.ibtimes.com/how-us-subsidizes-cheap-drugs-europe...Though there are lots of other ways to frame this of course since most of that is eaten up by US marketing expenses:https:/