European nations have long been free-riding off U.S. investments in biopharmaceutical innovation. For instance, one Ernst & Young study found that high-income European countries spend roughly half of what the United States does on innovative medicines. At Davos this week, President Trump again excoriated European (and other high-income) countries for failing to pay their fair share for innovative medicines, going so far as to say that “Europe has been ‘screwing’ the U.S. on drug prescriptions for years.”
The notion that Europe…
