The debate over America’s drug-pricing system is built on myths. It’s time to face reality

America’s drug-pricing system is broken.

Any system in which the list price of insulin triples in a decade, leading patients to ration it and sometimes die, is not working. Cancer patients should not worry that their disease will bankrupt them. The U.S. insurance system, which has instead gone decades without making tough decisions about how to pay for medicines, should not be passing on so many costs to patients.

But it’s also a reality — one that many politicians and pundits on the left seem eager to ignore — that cutting drug prices will mean companies spend less money on research and development. The result will be fewer new drugs. When nearly 150 biotech CEOs warned that the drug pricing bill passed by the House of Representatives on Dec. 12 would destroy their businesses, they were freaking out for a reason. 

What should be bracing is that it’s impossible to gauge how, exactly, the bill would affect the development of new medicines. Anywhere between 17 and 59 drugs are approved annually. The Congressional Budget Office concluded the House bill would reduce the number of drugs approved