In the ongoing effort to reduce drug costs for Americans without jeopardizing our unrivaled access to lifesaving medicines, our most important concern remains avoiding government price controls that only end up making their targeted products unavailable.
In that endeavor, President Trump notched an enormous win for American consumers this week through a new trade agreement with the United Kingdom.
Under the terms of the deal, the U.K. will relax its artificial drug price controls, and in return the U.S. will refrain from imposing tariffs on British medicines, pharmaceutical ingredients and medical devices. That constitutes a win/win for both nations.
For decades, America has led the world in drug innovation, accounting for approximately two-thirds of all new medicines introduced to the world annually. That’s the direct result of our greater emphasis on free markets and protection of intellectual property (IP) – patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets – compared to the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, over time that has cultivated a “free rider” problem vis-à-vis the rest of the world.
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