Emerson drug plans have merit

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau is continuing her efforts to make prescription drugs more affordable for the millions of Americans who rely on medications to preserve their health and make living easier.

She is pushing on two fronts, both of which deserve wide support from elected officials in Congress.

One push would allow licensed pharmacies in the U.S. to obtain FDA-approved drugs from Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

These are drugs manufactured by U.S. companies -- the same pharmaceutical companies whose powerful Washington lobbyists have stymied this proposal for years.

U.S. pharmaceutical companies incur tremendous expense developing new life-saving and life-improving drugs.

Much of that cost is recaptured through sales to pharmacies and hospitals until patents expire and the drugs' formulas become available to manufacturers who have no investment in their research and development.

Rightly, the companies that create the drugs and go through the FDA approval process are entitled to recoup their investment at a profit. But much of that cost is borne by U.S. drug users. Pharmacies outside the U.S. either pay less for U.S.-manufactured drugs or are subsidized by government prescription programs.

Which leads to the other push being made by Emerson. This would allow Medicare and other government providers of prescription drugs to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies for better prices.

Both ideas have merit, and Americans struggling to pay for prescriptions -- or choosing not to take the drugs their doctors say they need -- would benefit tremendously is Emerson's proposals gain enough traction to result in the passage of meaningful legislation.