Andrew Sullivan notes that the kind of policies now being recommended for the US to lower drug prices–having government bargain through Medicare or allowing reimportation of drugs from Canada–carry a cost. He quotes Dow Jones on a report from Bain & Co.:
“Europe has lost out in four ways: The number of new drug targets launched in Europe has almost halved to 44 between 1998-2002 from 81 between 1993-97, top R&D jobs have flooded to America, European drug companies have moved research centers abroad, and Europeans now have to wait 33% longer to get new treatments than patients in America. For example, Bain claims Germany saved $19 billion by spending less than America on healthcare in 2002, but lost $22 billion in reduced R&D investment and drug innovations, lost wages from high added-value jobs, disappearing R&D centers, and poor health.”
Self-interest is the reason drug companies exist in the first place; there would be no drugs at all were it not for their pursuit of their self-interest, and freedom means recognizing the right of producers to what they produce. It’s no surprise that trying to sacrifice producers on the altar of need will have such destructive effects.