Washington’s latest drug pricing idea would put European bureaucrats in charge of what Americans pay for medicine. President Trump has called for “most favored nation” (MFN) drug pricing, and Congress is considering versions of the idea in recently introduced Senate and House bills.
The pitch is simple: force drug prices in the United States down to the prices paid in Europe. However, MFN does not make medicines cheaper to discover, test, manufacture or distribute. It imports foreign price controls that have delayed launches and reduced investment in innovative new pharmaceuticals, making American access to new medicines dependent on the decisions made by foreign governments.
In Europe, most countries used for international reference pricing rely on government price caps or their own reference pricing systems. If Congress enacts MFN, American patients become dependent on foreign bureaucrats to set drug prices. MFN does not set market prices; it pegs American prices to other governments’ decisions.
Justin Leventhal is a Senior Policy Analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization that advocates for consumers through evidence-based analysis and data. Follow Justin on X @JustinLeventhal