New Delhi, Oct. 2 -- US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. has struck a deal with Washington to invest $70 billion in America, sell drugs to its Medicaid programme at the lowest prices it offers in other developed countries, and take part in a government-run, direct-to-consumer platform, named by the President modestly as TrumpRx, which promises steeply discounted medicines to the country's citizens.

The development adds yet another weapon to the US government's armoury for restraining medicine prices: Coercion.

No government likes sky-high drug prices. Many have devised mechanisms to regulate them-ranging from a drug price control authority that can assess prices for reasonableness and affordability and impose ceilings, to negotiations l...