Trump scolds drugmakers over ‘astronomical’ pricing
PHARMACEUTICALS
WASHINGTON • U. S. President Donald Trump told drugmakers at a White House meeting Tuesday t hey were charging t oo much and promised to get better bargains for government health programs, in addition to finding ways to get new medicines to market faster.
“The pricing has been astronomical,” Trump said to chief executives of some of the world’s biggest drugmakers, who came to Washington after his criticism of the industry earlier this month sent drug and biotechnology stocks plunging. “You folks have done a very great job over the years but we have to get the prices down.”
Trump has threatened to have the government negotiate prices directly with the industry on behalf of Medicare and Medicaid, which are some of the world’s biggest purchasers of healthcare products and services and cover tens of millions of Americans.
“Competition is key to lowering drug prices,” the president said.
At the same time, Trump promised to slash regulations, get new treatments to market faster at the Food and Drug Administration, and increase international competition. “We’re going to streamline FDA; we have a fantastic person” that will be announced to lead the agency soon, Trump said. He also promised to cut taxes on business and lure companies back to the U.S.
At the Tuesday meeting was Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America CEO Stephen Ubl, Merck & Co. CEO Ken Frazier, Eli Lilly & Co. CEO Dave Ricks, Celgene Corp. chairman Bob Hugin, Novartis AG CEO Joe Jimenez, Johnson & Johnson worldwide chairman of pharmaceuticals Joaquin Duato and Amgen Inc. CEO Bob Bradway. They embraced Trump’s calls for lower taxes and fewer regulations.
“Some of t he policies you’ve come out and sug- gested I think can help us do more — tax, regulations,” Ricks said at the session.
Frazier said the industry was ready to work with Trump. “I think all these things come together to create a system that’s good for innovation, that’s good for jobs” and for patients, he told reporters after the meeting.
Bradway promised to add 1,600 jobs at Amgen, Sean Spicer, Trump’s spokesman, said in a tweet after the meeting. The drugmaker had previously been cutting jobs, after announcing in 2014 that it would eliminate as many as 2,900 positions. The company didn’t respond to a request for details about the job additions.
At a briefing last week, Spicer said that lowering drug prices is going to be one of the key parts of reforming health care. The gathering with drug CEOs came after Trump said on Jan. 12 that the industry was “getting away with murder” and promised to act on drug prices. Since then, drugmakers have turned up their lobbying efforts with Congress as a potentially friendlier force that might counter Trump.
The drug industry is one of Washington’s most powerful, and each year spends hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying, in addition to being one of the biggest donors to political campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. PhRMA, the lobby group, also launched an image makeover Jan. 23 that will feature advertising and public affairs events that focus on the value of its products.
Republicans generally have not backed proposals that require more government involvement and instead have aligned themselves with ideas that promote free-market principles. In 2009, even in the face of a Democratic president and Congress, pharmaceutical companies were able to dodge Medicare price negotiation, partly by agreeing to commit US$ 80 billion to help fund provision of the Affordable Care Act.