Fiscal Tax Blog

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Stop Germany, Japan Free-Riding On U.S. Drug Innovation

The developed world has long forced American patients to disproportionately shoulder the cost of pharmaceutical innovation. And President Donald Trump has had enough. He recently put our allies on notice—by launching a formal trade investigation into Germany’s unfair drug pricing practices and signaling his readiness to formally investigate other nations if they refuse to change course. Those investigations are desperately needed. Germany’s government is poised to enact an even more aggressive price-setting scheme in the…

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U.S. opens tariff probe targeting Germany’s drug pricing policies

The U.S. has launched an investigation into Germany’s pharma policies over what it referred to as “persistent underpayment” for medicines as the European country looks to limit spiraling healthcare costs, including spending on drugs. “President Trump has made clear that American patients should not be shouldering a disproportionate share of global pharmaceutical research and development,” said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in a statement late Thursday. “I am particularly concerned with news that Germany is fast-tracking…

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The ‘most favored nation’ threat is real. Seniors should take notice

People have spent a lifetime paying taxes in exchange for the promise of Medicare coverage once they reach 65. In return, seniors expect to receive the highest quality care and access to innovative, impactful treatments and therapies they need to maintain their health. The “most favored nation” drug pricing policy being considered by the Trump administration threatens to disrupt their Medicare coverage completely by importing foreign price-setting policies that could limit access to the medications millions depend on. Every Medicare beneficiary…

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Biden blunders made drug price controls even worse

The comically misnamed Inflation Reduction Act imposed government price controls on prescription drugs by replacing the old non-interference principal, which used market-average prices to set drug reimbursement, with a scheme that allows the Secretary of Health and Human Services to directly set prices via a sham negotiation, in which the manufacturer has to agree or face a punitive seizure via a tax equal to 95% of the product’s total sales. A system like that undermines the return on the…

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Foreign drug price controls are a hidden tax on Americans

The United States spends far more on healthcare, on a per capita basis, than any other country in the world. There are many reasons why, including health insurance companies. But one reason has been largely overlooked: foreign governments maintain pricing systems that limit what they pay for drugs. The difference has been absorbed in the United States, with the result that Americans cover a disproportionate share of the world’s drug costs. These pharmaceutical pricing systems need to be…

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End the Big Insurance Protection Racket

By Phil Kerpen May 20, 2026 The health insurance companies have taken to the airwaves to blame the hospital systems for out-of-control health care costs. Their argument has some merit, because hospital costs have skyrocketed in recent years. But the insurance companies have been the chief culprits in the cartelization of health care, and it was the Obamacare law they helped shape that was the proximate cause of industrywide consolidation, with a loss of choice…

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Commitment to Seniors Urges the U.S. Senate to Oppose any Inclusion of the “Most Favored Nation” Drug Pricing Model in Vote-A-Rama

Washington, D.C. – May 20, 2026 – Commitment to Seniors (C2S), a project of American Commitment urges the U.S. Senate to oppose any effort to include the “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) drug pricing model in the upcoming vote-a-rama on Reconciliation 3.0. This foreign price-fixing policy could have a devastating impact on the prescription drug market millions of older Americans rely upon. MFN would import foreign price controls by tying U.S. drug prices to those set…

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China is winning the first mile of drug innovation

The next breakthrough therapy may still be marketed in New York or Basel. But increasingly, it is being born in Shanghai. China’s pharmaceutical industry has moved beyond imitation into something more consequential: early-stage innovation at scale. The clearest signal isn’t manufacturing output or even late-stage approvals. It’s what’s happening at the very front of the pipeline, Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials, where scientific ideas first become viable medicines. By that measure, China is no longer catching up. It…