WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — President Donald J. Trump sent letters on Thursday to 17 leading pharmaceutical manufacturers outlining the steps they must take to bring down the prices of prescription drugs in the United States to match the lowest price offered in other developed nations.
Trump called on the pharmaceutical giants to provide most-favored-nation (MFN) prices available to overseas customers to U.S. consumers, specifically mentioning “to every single Medicaid patient.”
Looking to the future, his letter also requires MFN pricing for all newly-launched drugs.
The letters inform manufacturers that if they “refuse to step up,” the federal government “will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices.”
Identical letters were sent to AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron, and Sanofi.
Trump signed a sweeping executive order (EO) in early May, “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients,” in which he said that drug manufacturers “deeply discount their products to access foreign markets, and subsidize that decrease through enormously high prices in the United States.”
“The inflated prices in the United States fuel global innovation while foreign health systems get a free ride,” said Trump in his EO.
“This abuse of Americans’ generosity, who deserve low-cost pharmaceuticals on the same terms as other developed nations, must end,” he demanded.
“Right now, brand name drug prices in the United States are up to three times higher on average than elsewhere for the identical medicines,” began Trump in his letter to Big Pharma corporate heads. “This unacceptable burden on hardworking American families ends with my Administration.”
“Most proposals my Administration has received to ‘resolve’ this critical issue promised more of the same: shifting blame and requesting policy changes that would result in billions of dollars in handouts to industry,” wrote Trump.
“Moving forward, the only thing I will accept from drug manufacturers is a commitment that provides American families immediate relief from the vastly inflated drug prices and an end to the free ride of American innovation by European and other developed nations,” he explained.
The president demanded action from the pharmaceutical companies within 60 days.
“Make no mistake: a collaborative effort towards achieving global pricing parity would be the most effective path for companies, the government, and American patients. But if you refuse to step up, we will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices,” warned the president.
“Americans are demanding lower drug prices, and they need them today,” noted Trump.
“Other nations have been freeloading on U.S. innovation for far too long: it is time they pay their fair share.”
