Titans of the automotive, banking, and technology industries have spoken out in recent days against President Donald Trump’s move to block arrivals from seven Muslim-majority nations.
But the pharmaceutical sector, which relies disproportionately on immigrant labor, has been almost universally silent — perhaps in a bid to avoid rousing Trump’s ire before a crucial meeting Tuesday morning at the White House.
STAT reached out to the 15 biggest drug companies about the immigration ban; only Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Novartis responded with statements — and they simply expressed support for affected employees, without taking a stance on Trump’s action.
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To the author and Ed: Where did “But the pharmaceutical sector, which relies disproportionately on immigrant labor…” this come from? All foreign born working in US are green card holders as they want to become citizens or are citizens.
Pharma in the developed countries have to change their model. Their model of inventing new drugs (generics included) and abandoning them to low tax countries or developing countries has been the holy grail.
Industry needs to think differently and their buying and selling of legislatures has to change. Glory days of legalized buying legislature may be history.
PBMs and Medicare should negotiate and instill best mfg. technology to lower costs. It is practiced in every other manufacturing and should be done for pharma also.
“he has advocated legalizing the importation of medicines from nations where prices are lower.”
The problem with this is that each country’s drug prices do not exist in a vacuum. Part of the reason Pharma companies can cut deals for other countries is because they make up for it in the U.S. pricing. I’m certainly not saying that’s an ideal situation, but it complicates matters.