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).