WASHINGTON — The Trump administration unveiled four executive orders on Friday aimed at bringing down pharmaceutical prices, a last-ditch effort by the White House to cut drug costs before the November election.
It remains unclear whether the Trump administration is capable of finalizing many of the actions by Election Day — and whether it intends to do so.
Trump backed away Friday from implementing a sweeping policy that would revive a long-stalled plan to cap U.S. drug prices based on what drug makers charge in foreign countries. Instead, he announced a one-month ultimatum for drug manufacturers to propose alternative plans to reduce drug prices.
Regardless of who wins in November, what the heck foes international reference price mean and which countries to include? It would be disastrous for the biopharma industry if India and Bangladesh must be included, e.g., for Gilead with remdesivir!
Ridiculous reporting with a heavy Liberal spin on efforts to help the American people…your hatred toward the President is childish and blatant.
This was a refreshing read. No bias. It was just simple well done reporting. How i wish statnews would branch into other areas of journalism so discerning viewers won’t feel mentally insulted by what passes for news today. Hope you are taking notes associated press.
The fine prints at the end of the executives orders read:
no final decision shall be taken before Nov 4th.
Or, don’t worry about it. Just hold my rhetoric till then.
I don’t know if anything will come of this but at least it keeps us talking about this very important issue. I own an independent community pharmacy in rural America and in order to keep taking care of communities like mine policy makers need to take a good look at every link in the pharmaceutical chain. There are very simple steps that can be taken to correct some of these problems, but we have to get past the $$$ that PBMs use for lobbying for their interests. Pharmacists have lost complete control of their own profession to insurance companies and PBMs. There is a lot of money being made in pharmacy, it just isn’t by the individuals that have devoted their lives to becoming a pharmacist and wanting to take care of their community. The middleman (PBMs) are in complete control of this profession and it is no secret, all you have to do is look at the top three PBMs and their net profits over the last 10 years and you will understand why medicine and healthcare is so expensive. They have no organization to answer to or that oversees how the industry is run, this allows them to essentially do whatever they want and get away with it. If lawmakers want to make a true difference when it comes to drug pricing and the pharmacy chain they need to start with PBMs. If they are allowed to do business as usual the only pharmacies left to fill prescriptions will be the ones that are owned by PBMs.
Well said !!
I hear you. But I strongly believe rebates granted by the biopharma corporations for any specific drug should go directly to those patients taking the drug and not to PBM’s yo supposedly lower the premium for all PBM members. It is totally illogical, ridiculous, and unfaur? Do auto manufacturers give rebates to car buyers or new vehicle dealers?
Maybe nothing will happen… I don’t know. At least It’s a try …. been in independent community pharmacy for 24 years. He hit the exact issues that have been killing us in our attempt to keep our tiny little rural pharmacy open. Don’t remember anybody (of any party) even addressing them publicly even a little. New to STAT. Glad that you are here.Thank you for the article.
This is the first time you’ve mentioned Trump in the headline in a month or two, so of course it’s a positive story.
The only Trump-negative story I can recall from STAT this year pointed out that Obama did put a pandemic response team in place, and that Trump very publicly said it was useless and got rid of it.
That story disappeared in a day or two. We’ll see how long this one lasts — or rather, you will see. I’m done with STAT.
It’s a balanced story. This is a science/medical publication, not a political publication. They went straight down the line with the facts. If you require biased reporting because you can’t tolerate any fairness to the issues, which are paramount, then maybe you are better off somewhere else. Personally, I’m thankful to the reporters for the balance on this VERY IMPORTANT story which will impact so many of us in various ways.