[legion]

Back more than a half-century ago, American drug companies figured they could break into the European market by selling drugs there at close to the cost to produce. The American market bore all of the R&D costs.

70 years later, through many mergers and lots of laws in Europe to protect their cheap drug costs, the same practice continues. Americans pay the costs to develop drugs and Europeans only pay the cost to produce them. A more equitable model would be for everyone to pay the R&D costs, but European authorities fiercely defend their privilege.