Ah, page 3 in today’s Wall Street Journal: “The head of the FDA warned that wealthy nations need to more fairly share the cost of developing new drugs, and criticized price controls maintained by some European and other countries that force Americans to shoulder too much of the burden.” How true, and exactly what I have been saying all along.

When buying innovative medications for previously untreatable conditions, it’s not only the cost that goes into manufacturing that green or blue pill - no, you’ll also have to factor in the research that goes into developing it. Plus, you’ll also have to add on the many research projects that didn’t go anywhere.

That’s already a lot, and it doesn’t help that it takes today longer than ever to develop a successful drug. Why? Maybe it’s because all the low-hanging fruit have already been picked…

But, I digress. Here’s the math problem alluded to by McClellan: Canada is responsible for around 2-3 percent of revenues for US-based pharmaceutical companies. Why can such a minority negotiate substantial discounts for shipments of US prescription drugs? And then sell them back to US citizens? Isn’t that the reason why US citizen have to pay higher prescription drug prices in the first place? Why not have everyone pay the same price for prescription drugs? If Canadians think that drugs are too expensive, then let their government help out - with Canadian taxpayer’s money.