Our government via Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA system is the largest customer of the drug companies in the world.  As a conservative, I think it is ridiculous that taxpayers get bent over without any price breaks for our volume purchases when the same drugs get sold much cheaper elsewhere in the developed world.  But I can see how the 900 pound gorilla in the room would turn into price setting rather than "negotiation".  Bureaucrats can be like that.  Point taken.

My solution is that we demand "most favored nation" pricing from the drug companies.  Our government does not do any negotiating.  But we get the same pricing as the BEST prices for the same drugs sold anywhere in the developed world.  Let the drug makers keep it in the back of their mind that the price they agree to in France is the price they will be selling it in the USA.  Unless they give the UK and even sweeter deal.