7/22/03

A vote on allowing the re-importation of pharmaceutical drugs back to the U.S. is slated for Wednesday afternoon. The vote is expected to be very close, and as Jim Glassman and I argue in our piece in the Wall Street Journal Europe the entire world will likely suffer if this legislation becomes law. Right now the rest of the world is free-riding off the research funded by the expenditures that American make on drugs. That is hardly an ideal arrangement, but effectively placing price controls on American drug purchases will greatly reduce the incentive to develop new drugs.