President Trump on Thursday claimed his latest “most favored nation” govt order may trigger U.S. drug costs to “drop like a rock” in only a matter of weeks, saying the financial savings will likely be “incalculable.”
In a briefing to debate the newly launched Make America Wholesome Once more Fee’s report on youngsters’s well being, Trump ended the occasion by speaking in regards to the govt order he signed final week aimed toward slashing prescription drug costs.
Trump shifted a lot of the blame for sky-high drug costs to different nations, saying they’re “a lot more vicious than us in terms of their representatives,” and he claimed the U.S. has been subsidizing the low price of medication in different nations.
“We are going to now get a reduction in drug costs of up to 89 percent in some cases, but 50 percent would be a low, a bad number,” Trump mentioned. “It’s going to be massive numbers. It’s going to be incredible for Medicaid, incredible for all forms of health care. Medicare is going to be — it’s going to have a huge impact, so big that nobody can calculate it.”
Trump’s “most favored nation” coverage specified by his govt order goals to permit the U.S. to pay for prescribed drugs on the identical worth as “the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World.”
The chief order directs the Division of Commerce and U.S. Commerce Consultant Jamieson Greer to take “all appropriate action” towards “unreasonable and discriminatory” insurance policies in overseas nations that suppress drug costs overseas, based on a White Home official.
It additionally directs Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to set “clear targets” for prescription drug and pharmaceutical worth reductions inside 30 days. It will set off a spherical of negotiations with drug firms and if nothing outcomes from these talks, then Kennedy is allowed to impose “most favored nation” pricing.
“You can have, within a period of weeks, you can have drug costs that drop like a rock,” Trump mentioned Thursday.
Addressing each Kennedy and Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers Administrator Mehmet Oz, Trump added, “OK, so you as a group, I have great confidence. And if you don’t do it, I am firing every single one. Good luck, guys.”
Pharmaceutical and biomedical commerce teams have decried the order, together with the Biotechnology Innovation Group (BIO). It sued the Trump administration in 2020 when it tried to enact the same govt order. The group efficiently blocked the order from being applied.
“Most favored nation is a deeply flawed proposal that might devastate our nation’s small- and mid-size biotech firms – the very firms which can be the main drivers of medical innovation in the USA and the cornerstone of America’s biotechnology management,” John F. Crowley, BIO’s president and CEO, mentioned in an announcement.
