I agree, so many of these studies are not very high quality, and there is so much money behind the scenes trying to push agendas -- between pharma lobbies, hospital lobbies, payer lobbies, and politicians capitalizing on public anger at pharma and high healthcare costs in general -- that most of what we read seems to reflect political agendas more than facts

Many drug prices are too high but 80% of rx in the US are generic, and US is middle of the pack in terms of drug spend as a percent of HC spend compared to OECD countries

Drug prices "feel" higher bc copays are higher for drugs than office / hospital visits. If the goal is to reduce actual costs rather than perceived costs, we should look at hospital and provider costs, not just drug costs. But hospitals are huge employers with lots of political power, not to mention large lobbying budgets