Are we?

> ...industry supplies the bulk of the funds devoted to research and development, the public sector—primarily the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—supports most of the nation’s basic biomedical research.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/30/2/332.full

This quote seems to indicate the majority of R&D is coming out of the private sector.

Moreover, this overhead of medical R&D from the public sector doesn't explain price differences in drugs between US and other developed nations:

http://usuncut.com/news/us-drug-prices-in-the-us-are-literal...

http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-u-s-pays-more-than-other...

There are deeper, systemic issues IMO.

I wonder what would happen if the U.S. passed a law requiring that drug prices in the U.S. be no higher than anywhere else in the world. That is the drug company is free to set any price, but they cannot sell at a lower price outside the U.S.

Wouldn't it be dramatically easier to just allow Americans to buy their drugs from other first world countries at the prices they pay? If American drug companies have to compete with extra-national pricing, I'm guessing they'll figure out a way to.

On top of that, you're not forcing anybody to do anything.

No I mean specifically from the private sector. You have to front that cost somehow. Whether you're seeing the cost as more expensive drugs or whatever, you're still paying it. R&D is factored into the cost.

The negotiation process is just different than when other countries are negotiating with US pharmaceutical companies.