Regulatory approaches have to fit societal preferences.

• Position: Consumer Affairs

Conventional wisdom holds this syllogism about prescription drugs: they cost much more in the United States than in Europe; the price differential is due to European governments' desire to keep down costs to their health-care spending; and the long-term effect is driving corporate research and development on new drugs to the United States, where companies can charge higher prices and earn big profits for innovative products.

On examination, it proves hard to demonstrate a systematic pattern of stark, one-sided Transatlantic difference in drug costs. Gretchen Jacobson's article delineates policy tools used on both sides of the Atlantic. Her factual survey is a starting point for further discussion about drug prices--a complex subject that is sensitive for government budgets, for corporate investment and for the public.

Her account of the complex public-private systems in different countries point to a clear corollary conclusion: much more comparative research on Transatlantic approaches...