In a mad scramble for the midterm elections, Washington is proposing every scheme imaginable to lower the cost of prescription drugs. But how prices are lowered matters, especially when voters are not advised of the fine print. Misguided drug-pricing schemes can kill tomorrow’s cures.

The drug pricing framework embedded in former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act holds the potential to do the most damage. Under the law — passed without one Republican vote — the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must establish a Maximum Fair Price for certain medicines covered for beneficiaries. It accomplishes this by comparing a new drug to existing ones, using past prices as the starting point for negotiations, even if a new drug works better.

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Let’s say an older minivan sells for $20,000. Then a vehicle manufacturer creates a new minivan with superior safety technology that will save lives. By the logic of Maximum Fair Price, the new vehicle manufacturer would be forced to start price negotiations at $20,000, irrespective of the improvements it has made for American families.

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Under that system, no rational company would........

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