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I don't agree with you. The problem is that some countries effectively refuse to honor US patents on drugs, by regulating the price of drugs at low levels which do not reflect the value of the patents (e.g. Canada and just about every other country in the world). So the US consumer ends up paying high prices which incorporate the premium for the drug patent, and are intended to encourage R&D, while the foreign consumers get a free ride, courtesy of the US consumer.

In effect, the problem is an international trade issue, but it is not being treated as one by the US government. The US should put pressure on foreign nations to pay their fair share of R&D, and if they won't, then the drug companies ought to be told that they have a choice: They can either find a way to increase their prices overseas, they can reduce them here, or they can simply stop doing business in these countries that won't let them charge what they are charging us.

If they were successful in forcing other nations to pay their fair share, it would cause a dramatic increase in pharmaceutical R&D.

So the US consumer ends up paying high prices which incorporate the premium for the drug patent, and are intended to encourage R&D, while the foreign consumers get a free ride, courtesy of the US consumer.

1. A significant number [nearly half] of drugs are not US R&D. They are actually developed and produced by foreign pharmaceutical companies. Japan, Israel, and Germany are 3 leaders in the industry.

2. Name brands are sky high in the US because the pharma companies can get away with charging high prices, due to price protections. When a drug patent is about the expire, the pharma re-invents the forumlary and gets a new patent, so they can continue to charge the high price for the newly remodeled drug.

If drug companies were not making any $$$ by selling to price-protected Canada, those drug companies would not make their products available in Canada. Canada cannot force them to provide products.

And, if Walmart can profit from selling generics for $4 per month, what kind of price gouging was going on previously, when generics were running near $30 per month each [based on personal experience for a generic maintenance prescription] at other pharmacies?

If they really want to make some headway, then they should ban pharmaceutical companies from discriminating against the American consumer. If they are selling pharmaceuticals in Canada for 1/2 the price that they are selling them for in the US, then they ought to be told that they must either raise their price in Canada or cut it in the US. The US consumer should not be expected to bear the full cost of R&D.

Brilliant!
This is Beyond Brilliant and must be stated again and again. The USA is picking up the tab for the rest of the World, not only Canada but especially the ungrateful EU.

The problem is that some countries effectively refuse to honor US patents on drugs, by regulating the price of drugs at low levels which do not reflect the value of the patents

That's just drug company FUD, and a prime reason why voters rejected special-interest Republicans this year. Canada has no power to "force" foreign pharma to discount prices; all it does is make a single price offer for a huge quantity - buying for the whole country at one time - of each type of medication. The drug company can sell at this price, or refuse the offer. In 57% of all cases, US companies DO refuse to sell, meaning that Canadians don't get that drug from its government health system.

There is such a thing as the TRIPS agreement, which allows foreign countries to break US patents and make their own medications for AIDS and other life-critical diseases if prices get "too high" (whatever that means), but Canada has never invoked TRIPS. The countries that have threatened to do so are typically Third World dumps without any actual means for drug production, especially for export. Our whole patent/copyright system has in any case become such a horrible mess, actually holding back innovation, that I wouldn't mind seeing Brazil or China just thumb their noses at the whole concept and let production blast free.