President Donald Trump sent 17 pharmaceutical companies letters on Thursday and demanded that the companies lower prices for Americans. The president warned that the “unacceptable burden” of prescription drug prices will “end” with his administration.
During a press briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The president signed an executive order earlier this year to solve the problem of exorbitant pharmaceutical pricing.”
“According to recent data, the prices that Americans have been paying for brand-name drugs are more than three times the price other similarly developed nations pay,” Leavitt added. “The president is determined to solve this problem and took further action today. He has signed 17 letters to pharmaceutical companies’ CEOs.”
Leavitt also shared the letter Trump wrote to the CEO of Eli Lilly and Company. In the letter, Trump warned Eli Lilly and 16 other pharmaceutical companies that the “unacceptable burden” of brand-name drugs costing “up to three times higher on average” for Americans than for citizens of other countries “ends with my administration.”
Trump told the pharmaceutical companies, “Most proposals the Trump administration has received to resolve this critical issue promised more of the same shifting blame and requesting policy changes that would result in billions of dollars in handouts to industry.”
The president added, “Moving forward, the only thing I will accept from drug manufacturers is a commitment that provides American families immediate relief from the vastly inflated drug prices and an end to the free ride of American innovation by European and other developed nations.”
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While Trump explained that a collaborative effort to reach “global pricing parity” would be most effective for pharmaceutical companies, the U.S. government, and U.S. patients, he warned that his administration will “deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families” if pharmaceutical companies refuse to take action.
In addition to the letter sent to Eli Lilly and Company, Trump sent letters to AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Johnson and Johnson, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Pfizer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Sanofi.
In the letters, Trump gave the companies 60 days to extend “Most-Favored-Nation” pricing to Medicaid and provide “full portfolios” of drugs for Medicaid patients, guarantee Most-Favored-Nation pricing for new drugs, negotiate with “foreign freeloading nations” and return “increased revenues abroad” to patients in the United States, and allow Americans to directly purchase drugs at Most-Favored-Nation prices.
