Drug price controls: right objective, wrong solution

This month, President Trump signed an executive order to reduce Medicare spending on prescription drugs. For each medication, Medicare will pay no more than the lowest price available in other developed countries.

President Trump has been true to his campaign promises. I voted for him in 2016, and will again in 2020. However, in this case, the administration identified the right problem, but chose the wrong solution.

Drugs cost less in other nations for one simple reason — their government-run health systems impose price controls. Those price caps have gutted foreign countries’ biotech industr...