In the case of the medical device company in question, the trials took place in Europe due to an easier regulatory process around testing. As I said, it's their personal story, but here is an article that describes the differences between the systems:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMhle1113918#t=articl...I didn't mean to imply that US drug prices necessarily have anything to do with its regulatory structure, or that the European regulatory structure had anything to do with their prices, only that the companies have probably optimized their development and pricing strategies for the economic and political situations in the local markets.