Trump : promises huge medicine price reductions in the US
Trump: US President Donald Trump said that American patients will soon pay no more than the lowest rates in the world, calling this the most comprehensive attempt in decades to reduce prescription medicine costs.
Alongside senior administration officials and top executives from the global pharmaceutical business, Trump said at the White House, “You’re going to get most favored nations pricing, meaning they’re going to pay our country the lowest price paid anywhere in the world.”
He said that compared to patients elsewhere, Americans have long paid disproportionately high costs.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were among those in attendance.
Trump said that Americans have been compelled to pay the highest prescription medication costs in the world for decades. “We make up 4% of the global population. However, seventy-five percent of pharmaceutical corporations’ income go to them.
According to Trump, major pharmaceutical firms have agreed to lower the cost of their flagship medications and make them available to Americans at costs that are benchmarked worldwide.
“To cut prices by 300, 400, 500, 600, and even 700 percent, we signed historic agreements,” he said.
CEOs of Sanofi Paul Hudson, Novartis Vas Narasimhan, Genentech Ashley Magargee, Boehringer Ingelheim (USA) Jean-Michel Boers, Gilead Dan O’Day, GSK Emma Walmsley, Merck Robert Davies, Bristol Myers Squibb General Counsel Cari Gallman, and Amgen Executive Vice President Peter Griffith were among the executives present at the announcement.
Trump said that if necessary, the government will use trade sanctions to ensure compliance. Trump said, “We’re going to impose tariffs on them if they don’t.” “Without the use of tariffs, we could never accomplish this.”
He predicted that medicine costs in the US will “come down fast and furious” starting the next year.
He said, “Therefore, we will receive the best deal in the world.”
Additionally, Trump said that patients, not insurance corporations, should directly benefit from savings.
“The money should be paid directly to the people, not to the insurance companies,” he said.
In the US, the cost of prescription drugs has continued to be a contentious political issue, especially for elderly and chronically sick individuals. Lowering prices without inciting industry resentment has proven difficult for succeeding administrations.
Trump has resurrected his “most favored nations” pricing notion to connect US prices to worldwide standards and has often claimed that Americans fund cheaper medicine costs elsewhere.