Trump to outline plan to cut prescription drug costs

President Donald Trump will deliver a speech today on his administration’s plan to bring down U.S. drug prices and reduce the amount people pay out of pocket for medications. The topics he is expected to touch on include generic drugs, inequities in global drug prices, prescription rebates and Medicare drug costs.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb kicked things off last year by expediting reviews of applications to get new generic drugs to market. The agency has given priority to certain generic-drug applications that would fill gaps where there is little-tono low-cost competition. The FDA approved a record-setting 1,027 new generic drugs last year.

Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget request to Congress proposed speeding up generic-drug approvals further. Currently, the first company to try to get a generic to market gets six months to sell its drug before competitors drive down the price. If it has trouble making the cheaper drugs or getting approved, the process can drag out — making consumers wait for the less expensive version. Trump’s proposal would allow the FDA to leapfrog the troubled application and move on to one ready to gain approval.

Most other developed nations pay far less for brandname drugs than the U.S. does, which has led to claims that Americans are subsidizing medical costs for the rest of the world. Many of those countries exert tighter price controls on pharmaceutical products, and Trump wants those countries to pay more, in the interest of fair trade.

A February report from the president’s Council of Economic Advisers called for measures that would push other countries to “appropriately reward innovation, rather than disproportionately putting that burden on American patients and taxpayers.” Trump is a proponent of using trade-deal negotiations to push other countries to act more favorably toward American interests.