Right now, the United States is subsidizing the rest of the world’s drug research by paying out really high prices. If we stopped doing that, it would likely mean fewer dollars spent on pharmaceutical research — and less progress developing new drugs for Americans and everybody else.
www.vox.com/platform/amp/science-and-health/2016/11/30/12945756/prescription-drug-prices-explained
Although this question is difficult to answer, several studies suggest that the benefit of lower prices today is offset by the forgone value created by drugs that never reach the market. According to one estimate, if the U.S. were to adopt European-level price controls, the reductions in U.S. prices today would result in 0.7 years lower longevity for future cohorts of Americans and Europeans due to fewer new drugs. This would cost Americans more than $50,000 per person when the value of foregone health is valued.
These points lead to an important economic conclusion. Because the U.S. accounts for the plurality of global pharmaceutical revenues - in 2016 the U.S. comprised 42 percent of global pharmaceutical revenues - it faces an "innovation-access" tradeoff that other countries do not.
If the U.S. were to adopt price regulations like other countries, the impact on global pharmaceutical revenues would be substantial because the U.S. comprises a large share of global revenue. A 20 percent reduction in U.S. pharmaceutical prices would directly impact global pharmaceutical revenues, whereas an identical policy by any single European nation would have a small impact.