To the Editor:

Re “Sound, Fury and Prescription Drugs” (editorial, July 7):

I heartily agree with your recommendations to constrain prescription drug costs. In addition to efforts at the federal level, state governments have been very active on this issue since 2017.

State initiatives become models for federal action, and this area is no exception. Congress can facilitate more effective state initiatives with two changes to federal law.

First, federal law should allow prescription drug importation from Europe and Japan, in addition to Canada, under current law, for state-administered wholesale import programs. This would address the supply limitations that you already noted.

Second, federal law should clarify that state drug cost policy is treated the same as state regulation of insurance: exempt from any suggestion that drug cost policy could violate the Constitution’s Commerce Clause. The drug industry’s relentless threats of costly lawsuits against any state that dares to make prescription drugs affordable results in cautious, and less effective, cost containment policy.