President Trump has secured nine new pricing agreements with drug manufacturers aimed at lowering what Americans pay for prescription medicines. The deals reflect an approach favoring individual negotiations with companies over broad government mandates.
But according to a Fox News opinion piece, that strategy misses the underlying driver of high U.S. drug prices: wealthy foreign governments that use price controls, mandatory rebates and reimbursement delays to suppress what they pay for the same innovative treatments developed largely with American investment.
American patients currently account for roughly three-quarters of pharmaceutical industry profits and more than half of global research and development spending, a share far exceeding the United States’ portion of the world economy, the piece notes.
The Free-Rider Argument
The op-ed argues that pressuring domestic drugmakers further won’t fix the imbalance. Instead, it says the administration should focus on getting other wealthy nations to pay their fair share.
It specifically warns against proposals in Congress to write “most-favored-nation” pricing into law, which would tie U.S. drug prices permanently to the lower prices paid abroad. Such a move, the piece argues, would effectively import foreign price controls into the U.S., reduce funding for future R&D, threaten jobs and manufacturing investment, and weaken American drugmakers’ position against Chinese competitors.
Overseas Leverage
The piece points to Trump’s negotiated deal with the United Kingdom last year, which will require Britain to increase what it pays for new medicines by 25%. It also cites a formal investigation the administration launched in June into how Germany’s drug price controls have harmed American commerce, calling it groundwork for a similar arrangement with Berlin.
The article names Japan, France and Switzerland as other wealthy countries using comparable tactics to underpay for new drugs, noting that in Japan roughly half of newly launched medicines face annual price cuts.
Citing one analysis, the piece states that if other developed countries paid U.S. prices for new prescription drugs, global pharmaceutical revenue would rise by more than $254 billion — money it argues could fund a domestic research and development boom, create jobs, and ultimately deliver cheaper treatments to American patients.
The opinion piece concludes that the Trump administration should redirect its negotiating leverage toward trading partners abroad rather than domestic manufacturers, in order to lower prices for Americans while preserving the U.S. biopharmaceutical industry’s global leadership.
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