Drugmakers say Japan R&D spending at risk after government forces price cuts

Blackmail, pure and simple. That is what the drug companies are doing. If you lower our prices we won't conduct research in your country. Give us the outlandish prices we are demanding and we will continue to conduct business as usual. How can they with a clear conscience lower the prices is other countries for this new medicine, but keep it high in Japan? Because they know the Japanese gov't will pay! What a bunch of bloodsuckers!

Government has no business in setting prices directly. This inevitably leads to supply failures, as we have seen with butter here and virtually everything in Venezuela.

Seems like a fair trade: if price is cut 30%, then R&D spending should also be cut 30%

Who would be spending the same amount when income has fallen? Only governments