PRICING PRESSURE IS EVER DOWNWARDS

Bill to Ease Imports of Less Expensive Drugs Gains in House (SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and GARDINER HARRIS, 7/22/03, NY Times)

A bill that would make it easier for Americans to import inexpensive prescription medicines from Canada and Europe is gathering support among some Republicans in the House of Representatives, prompting a furious effort by the pharmaceutical industry to defeat the legislation when it comes up for a vote later this week. [...]

For the industry, the financial stakes in the reimportation fight could hardly be greater. The Gutknecht bill estimates that widespread drug importation could reduce average drug prices in the United States by 35 percent and drug spending by $635 million over 10 years. If passed, the bill could wreck the industry's carefully constructed worldwide pricing systems.

Last year, average drug prices in the United States were 67 percent higher than those in Canada and about twice those of Italy and France, according to a report by the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board, a Canadian health agency. The United States spends 1.6 percent of its gross domestic product on drugs, compared with 0.6 percent in Germany and 0.9 percent in Canada, according to the report. The drug industry now gets more than half of its worldwide revenues from American consumers.

Just raise the prices you charge other countries and let their taxpayers subsidize us. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 22, 2003 11:55 AM