Editorial Board
The Real Reason Drugs Cost Too Much
Brand-name medicines get exclusive market rights that last too long.
In America, they cost more.
Photographer: FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty ImagesHillary Clinton, Donald Trump and three-fourths of their fellow Americans say prescription drugs cost too much. They're right, and the two candidates even agree on a couple of good strategies to try to keep prices down: Allow Medicare to negotiate on behalf of its 40 million beneficiaries, and let Americans buy drugs from countries where quality is well monitored.
Yet neither of these strategies addresses head-on the No. 1 reason that drug spending is rising so much. The main culprit, according to research from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, is that the government grants extraordinarily long periods of market exclusivity for new drugs.