America’s plan to cut drug prices comes with unpleasant side-effects

“America is the piggy-bank of the pharma world,” gripes David Mitchell of Patients for Affordable Drugs, a consumer lobbying group. There is some truth to this. America is the world’s largest pharmaceutical market, with $630bn in sales in 2022, or 42% of the worldwide total. Its contribution to profits—65% of the global haul—is greater still. American patients have long borne the burden of these juicy returns. Prescription medicines…