How other countries balance drug prices and innovation (part 1)

The idea that patients in the US shouldn’t pay more for prescription drugs than patients in comparable countries around the world has broad-based political appeal. That’s why lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have proposed legislation to base what Medicare pays for drugs on prices in other countries with comparable GDPs and make it easier to import drugs from Canada. But before we put US drug pricing levels at least partly in the hands of non-US policymakers, it’s worth taking a look at how other countries approach drug pricing and how much emphasis their policymakers place on the competing priorities of patient access to drugs (which is facilitated by lower prices) and drug innovation (which is facilitated by higher prices).

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Transparency, integrity, and rigorous evaluation of drug safety and efficacy are the bedrock of the FDA. Diverging from these tried-and-true principles, such as by issuing an emergency use authorization for a Covid-19 vaccine candidate without clear emerging evidence of its benefits outweighing its risks, would jeopardize both the public health and the public’s trust in the agency. 

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Zoe Bouchelle, MD, is a Pediatrics Chief Resident at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Irit Rasooly, MD, MSCE, is pediatric hospital medicine physician and researcher

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