Trump aims to make medicines cheaper.
But campaign idea for using Medicare’s clout isn’t in plan
WASHINGTON — President Trump vowed Friday to cut out the middlemen to reduce the soaring price of prescription drugs, but his long awaited address on the issue fell short of a campaign pledge to let the government directly negotiate lower prices.
Describing his plan as the “most sweeping action in history” to lower pharmaceutical prices, Trump said his administration is considering a number of ideas to crack down on abuses in the drug approval process and lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers.
“We will have tougher negotiation, more competition and much lower prices at the pharmacy counter,” Trump said in a Rose Garden address that was closely watched by drug companies and patient groups. “And it will start to take effect very soon.”
Trump said his proposal would ban “gag rules,” in which pharmacists are prohibited from telling customers that prices on some drugs would be lower if they paid in cash rather than through an insurance company. The president also reiterated a promise to pressure other countries, through trade negotiations, to raise their prices on drugs.
Officials said the administration’s “blueprint” on drugs includes dozens of ideas, but said it would likely take months before they take effect. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the idea was to “begin a national dialogue on the issue.” It is not clear what, if any, actions the administration would implement immediately.
Patient advocates noted Trump did not embrace the idea of allowing Medicare to use its purchasing power to lower prices, an idea he said he supported during the campaign.
“Trump’s few tough words for pharma are a cover-up for the sweetheart deal he is really offering the giant corporations that raise prices on Americans by the day,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Global
Access to Medicines Program. “The White House plan does little to make medicines affordable or challenge the core problem of high drug prices: pharma’s monopoly power and abuse.”
Advocates have criticized practices in which drug companies can game the drug approval process, such as by extending patents through slight tweaks to their products. By doing so, companies that own name-brand drugs can slow the approval of cheaper, generic versions that inject competition into the market.
Trump promised to get “tough on the drug makers that exploit our patent laws to choke out competition,” but offered little in the way of specifics of how that would happen.
The drug industry has been closely scrutinizing the administration’s remarks for months.
The president’s speech came days after revelations that Swiss pharmaceutical Novartis paid Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, $1.2 million for insight into how the administration would approach healthcare policy.
As a presidential candidate, Trump embraced allowing the government to negotiate directly with drug companies to lower prices in the Medicare program — an idea supported by Democrats and generally opposed by Republicans. As president, though, Trump abandoned the idea months ago in favor of more traditional GOP ideas.
Democrats blasted what they characterized as piecemeal policies.
“I think very expensive champagne will be popping in drug company boardrooms across the country tonight,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D.-Md.
An AARP report last year found the average annual price of drugs widely prescribed to seniors increased to $12,951 from $6,425 five years ago.
Pam Holt, a retired teacher from Granger, Ind., had to refinance her home earlier this year to afford the $640-permonth co-pay for a drug she is taking for multiple myeloma. Holt, who was invited to the Rose Garden address, said she is encouraged but waiting for prices to start coming down.