To: Peter Dierks who wrote (211380 ) 11/10/2004 2:07:52 PM From: Alighieri Read Replies (1) | Respond to It is not important how Canada imagines it sets prices. The reality is that they are free loaders coasting off of American citizens who are paying for the R & D which Canada is not paying. If you stop protecting the rights of drug companies to make some profit, there will be no new drugs. Today, with their high-profit American market protected, companies don't have to bargain hard abroad. The ban shields them, allowing them to claim they have to accept foreign price controls. Practically, Americans are subsidizing socialized medical systems abroad. Free markets and profit protection don't jive. The EU still bans contracts which would enable companies to restrict supply to non-cooperative countries. Then you might end up with laws in those countries allowing their local cloners to clone new brand name drugs and flooding the world wide market. The net result would still be the elimination of financial incentive to innovate. The mess created could take decades to work its way through the WTO. After all, the EU still maintains (anti US beef import) restrictions ruled illegal in 1998 (I think is was 1998).
