How Drug Pricing Reflects National Values Comparing the U.S. and Europe

This article analyzes how national values shape pharmaceutical pricing, comparing the United States and Europe as distinct political economies of health. Drug prices reflect not only market forces but the moral and institutional choices by which societies balance innovation, equity, and fiscal legitimacy. The U.S. model, delegated capitalism, links public research to private profit, generating rapid innovation but deep inequality. The European model, embedded corporatism, ties reimbursement to therapeutic value, achieving solidarity yet slower adoption. Tracing postwar development through the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19, the study shows how both systems adapt under stress and how transatlantic interaction now defines global norms of affordability, state authority, and technological sovereignty.