Published
October 10, 2025
American innovation drives global progress. However, many foreign countries implement policies that undervalue U.S.-financed innovation, creating challenges for businesses operating abroad and undermining future innovative advancements. The U.S. must take a stand to ensure all nations appropriately value the contributions of American innovators.
The problem: America’s trading partners have long imposed policies that diminish the value of American ingenuity. Weak intellectual property (IP) protection and pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement policies that emphasize cost containment allow foreign governments to freeload off American-financed ingenuity.
- For example, European clawback policies force pharmaceutical and medical device companies to return revenue if healthcare spending exceeds budget limits. These unpredictable financial penalties disproportionately impact U.S. firms, creating uncertainty for American companies and discouraging future investment in research and development (R&D). In some markets, clawbacks have effectively become shadow taxes—rising year after year and cutting deeply into funds that would otherwise be reinvested in new medicines, manufacturing, and patient access programs.
Yes, and: Similar pharmaceutical pricing measures in the UK have led global biopharmaceutical companies to pause investments in the country. These policies not only undermine foreign investment, but they directly impact patients, too. New data from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry revealed that UK patients can access only 37% of new medicines, while those same treatments are available to 90% of patients in Germany.
What’s more: Strong IP protection is equally important to better protecting American ingenuity overseas. Measures such as regulatory data protection, effective patent enforcement mechanisms, and patent term restoration are critical to encouraging R&D investment and effectively protecting innovation worldwide.
Why It Matters: America’s biopharmaceutical industry supports nearly 1 million jobs and contributes $1.4 trillion to the U.S. economy. Policies that undervalue U.S. innovation jeopardize these contributions. Moreover, when foreign countries refuse to pay their fair share, American patients and taxpayers bear the burden of funding global R&D.
The bottom line: American innovation is a global asset, but it cannot thrive without fair market access. The U.S. government must prioritize policies that protect American innovators and ensure equitable treatment abroad, including strengthening IP protections and pressing trading partners to eliminate clawback policies that punish success and deter R&D investment. Doing so will be critical to safeguarding the future of U.S. innovation and improving lives everywhere.
About the author
Kelly Anderson
Kelly Anderson serves as vice president of international policy at the U.S. Chamber’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC). Anderson oversees the GIPC’s global advocacy efforts and leads the GIPC’s policy engagement in the multilateral organizations and developed economies.
