Average International Market Pricing For US Pharmaceuticals—Lessons From Europe | Health Affairs

Average International Market Pricing For US Pharmaceuticals—Lessons From Europe | Health Affairs Comment by Don McCanne Drug prices in the United States range from $4 for some generics offered through membership programs to $2,125,000 for Zolgensma - a treatment for spinal muscular dystrophy. The average drug spending is about $1,200 per person per year - $346 billion in 2019 - per capita spending that is twice the average of other high-income nations. Why? Prices are too high. Why? Essentially, we have refused to demand that the government regulate drug prices. We won't even demand that the government negotiate better drug prices for the Medicare program. We are back to proposals to allow drug purchases through Canada to take advantage of their lower prices. But there are tremendous logistical problems with that, not to mention that Canada, with one-tenth of the population of the United States, can hardly be expected to meet our needs without threatening the drug supply for their own citizens. Besides, it is somewhat silly for U.S. firms to ship to Canada drugs at a lower price and then send them back here with various private and government administrative costs added on to the prices. I have long said that we don't need to import drugs from Canada; we need to import Canadian drug prices instead. The anti-regulatory posturing on drug pricing may be coming to an end. As Marc Rodwin states, "The Trump administration and House Democrats agree that the US should use an international price index that averages prices paid by other countries (mostly European) to cap the US prices," though the Democrats' proposal is far more comprehensive. More importantly, Rodwin provides us with key lessons derived from the experiences of European nations. We may struggle with trying to reprice a two million dollar drug, but we cannot allow that to set a new standard in price gouging by the pharmaceutical industry. We really do need single payer, improved Medicare for All that includes comprehensive prescription coverage, but we need to be sure that our tax system is paying fair prices for our drugs. I just paid a $567 copay for a drug covered under Medicare Part D. Though I can afford that, too many can't. We need a health care financing system that makes health care affordable for everyone. Instead of paying prices that too many cannot afford, we can make funding through progressive taxes the great equalizer. Everyone can afford that, even President Trump (his taxes for a year not being much more than my copay for one drug?)