President Trump has announced actions to “put American patients first by lowering drug prices and stopping foreign free-riding on American pharmaceutical innovation”.

“In case after case, our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory, effectively subsidizing socialism aboard [abroad] with skyrocketing prices at home. So we would spend tremendous amounts of money in order to provide inexpensive drugs to another country. And when I say the price is different, you can see some examples where the price is beyond anything — four times, five times different,” the US administration stated in a press release.

“Some prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices will be reduced almost immediately by 50 to 80 to 90%. Big Pharma will either abide this principle voluntarily, or will use the power of the federal government to ensure that we are paying the same price as other countries,” said Trump at a press conference yesterday (May 12).

Consider taking regulatory actions or importing drugs from other countries

The executive oder said the administration would consider taking regulatory actions or importing drugs from other countries. The order gives drugmakers price targets in the next 30 days, and will take further action to lower prices if those companies do not make “significant progress” toward those goals, reports Reuters.

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The stories have been in the U.S. media over and over in the past few years – the cost of a life-saving or maintenance drug suddenly jumps by as much as 1 000 percent, leaving patients and their advocates angry and bewildered. Less dramatic are the ongoing reports of Americans, especially the elderly, struggling to […]