Popular measure in California ballot targets drug prices

Despite a $100m (£82m; €92m) opposition campaign largely funded by drug companies, polls indicate that Californians strongly favor a measure in the state’s upcoming 8 November ballot mandating that the state should negotiate steep discounts on drugs purchased through its health programs.

The measure comes at a time when 63% of the US public said in a recent poll that government action to lower prescription drug prices was a top priority. US consumers face the highest drug prices in the world, spending $858 per capita in 2013—more than twice the $400 average in 19 other industrialized nations.1 …