President Donald Trump announced on Friday that nine major pharmaceutical companies have agreed to deals aimed at lowering prescription drug prices for American patients.
During a White House event, leaders from these pharmaceutical companies joined the 47th President to unveil the agreements. The participating manufacturers are Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi.
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This summer, he sent letters to 17 pharmaceutical companies demanding that U.S. prices align with those abroad. As the White House stated at the time, “The United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet roughly 75% of global pharmaceutical profits come from American taxpayers.”
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One downside for other countries is that their drug prices might rise slightly to compensate for the lowered costs in the United States. Trump stated that this was preferable, however, to the alternative of imposing 10% tariffs.
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“They said, ‘Is that a threat?’ I said, ‘yes, it is a threat,’” he added. “What’s happening, because the world is bigger than the United States … that same pill would go from $10 to $20 for them. … Ours would go from $130 to $20 … That’s the way it is.”
So far, 14 of the 17 companies his administration contacted have agreed to the pricing deal, with the remaining three expected to formalize their agreements soon. He joked that those three companies are in “deep trouble,” though Trump said he believes they’ll join at another time.
“As of today, 14 out of the 17 largest pharmaceutical companies — but they’ve all agreed — have now agreed to drastically lower drug prices for their American patients,” Trump continued.
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While praising the pharmaceutical companies for their patriotic contribution to U.S. national security through these agreements, Trump also announced that they had committed to investing over $150 billion to expand domestic drug manufacturing.
The President then invited Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to offer his comments.
“This is affordability in action,” said Oz. “We talk about it in abstract, but this is not an abstract concept. This is a very concrete, tangible, personal reality. Because we’ve got moms with sick children who cannot afford their medications, working families cannot make ends meet, seniors on fixed income — 80 million people who have to pay more than $100 a month for their prescriptions. They just can’t keep up.
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U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick similarly praised the administration’s teamwork in bringing costs down and bringing manufacturing home as “the most impressive thing [he’d] ever seen.”
“You want to know when you take that drug that it is made in America, overseen by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and it is safe,” he stated. “This is delivering for America.”
Several of the pharmaceutical company leaders detailed their investments and the specifics of the agreements they reached with the Trump administration.
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“We’re also answering the administration’s call … to shore up the national medicine reserves by donating more than six and a half tons of Eliquis,” she stated, part of the company’s commitment $40 billion into research and development in the U.S.
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* Original Article:
Major Drug Price Cuts: Trump announces 9 Pharma giants joining ‘Most Favored Nation’ deals