Trump signs executive order to reduce the costs of the US drugs by questioning prices in other countries

Cnn
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President Donald Trump signed a comprehensive order of the executive on Monday morning, which promises to operate “inappropriate or discriminatory” practices through abroad that lead to Americans paying much higher costs for prescription drugs.

“As of today, the United States will no longer subsidize health care abroad,” said Trump before signing the Executive Ordinance, which he claimed to reduce drug prices by up to 90%.

In addition, drug manufacturers have to offer US patients the lowest price that is paid for a medication in a Peer country, which is referred to as the “most preferred nation” award, or are opposed to consequences, said the president. He instructed the Ministry of Health and Human Services to achieve price goals within 30 days.

“Big Pharma will either comply with this principle voluntarily, or we will use the power of the federal government to ensure that we pay the same price as other countries to accelerate these price restrictions and cuts,” said Trump, although it is unclear what authority he has to demand, especially in the private market.

In the executive order, some potential effects have been presented if the manufacturers do not make significant progress in reducing prices, including the instructions of HHS, to create a rule to implement the directive, to enable more drug imports to the USA, and to change or revoke the Food and Drug Administration, which may not have been marketed, changed or revoked.

Trump's efforts to establish a “most preferred nation” rule for certain drugs in Medicare during his first term was quickly blocked by federal courts for procedural reasons before it was canceled by the then President Joe Biden in 2021. The new arrangement of the executive goes far beyond this measure, since it is not limited to Medicare or a certain number of drugs.

It is also unclear what power the administration has to include in the drug price negotiations of other countries with US pharmaceutical companies, although Trump warned that nations that do not reduce their price requirements could have higher tariffs. He forced the European Union, especially for the compulsion of drug manufacturers, to deliver its products at low prices, and added that trade in Europe was “evil” in many ways than in China.

“We will tell these countries such as those who are represented by the European Union that the game has expired,” said Trump. “If you want to get cute, you no longer have to sell cars to the USA.”

The guideline comes when the Trump administration also tries to impose tariffs for pharmaceutical imports that were freed from the levies that were issued during the first term of the president. The tariffs could tighten the bottlenecks of certain medication, especially generics, and ultimately increase prices. Experts have warned.

However, the drug manufacturers did not seem to be stuck by the announcement, with their share prices in the early afternoon in general. Trump praised the pharmaceutical research and manufacturer of America, the main trade association of the industry, to get hard in other countries.

“The administration has the right to use trade negotiations to force foreign governments to pay their fair proportion of medication.

However, the industry also warned against introducing a “preferred nation policy” in the United States.

“The import of foreign prices from socialist countries would be a bad business for American patients and employees,” said UBL. “It would mean fewer treatments and remedies and endanger the hundreds of billions that plan our member companies to invest in America – to threaten the work, violate our economy and make us more dependent on China for innovative medication.”

Some industry analysts said that the order was more bark than bite and not as hard as some feared.

“The announcement is more of a risk of headlines than the industrial sea change that some had feared,” wrote Evan Seogerman, a pharmaceutical analyst at BMO Capital Markets, in a reference to customers. “Overall, the most busy pricing could be more rhetoric than the actual implementable guideline.”

The legality of the “most preferred nation” price negotiations is “cloudy”, and a material long -term price reform would require an act of congress, he wrote.

For a long time, the Americans have paid much higher prices than patients in other countries, for a long time, because other governments often determine the costs. The US prices in all drugs -both brand names and generics -were almost 2.78 times as high as in comparable countries in 2022, according to an HHS report. In the case of brand medication, the US prices were at least 3.22 times as high, even after adapting to an estimated discounts.

The executive regulation, which is probably contested in court, aims to reduce the drug costs in different ways, some of which would include the federal government more in pricing. While US presidents and legislators have long convicted that Americans pay higher pharmaceutical prices than patients overseas, politicians have generally been held by taking general measures to meet the philosophy of America. This applies in particular to Republicans.

While Medicare obtained historical authority to negotiate prices for a small number of medication annually, Trump's executive order applies to a variety of medication and for prices on the commercial market as well as for Medicare and Medicaid. The president replied to the idea that the guideline was “price controls” by informing the reporters that the current system concerns price controls because pharmaceutical companies have set the price.

If the prices do not fall quickly, the administration will examine various political levers that can be used to reduce the drug costs, an official from the White House told reporters on Monday. The executive order calls on the trade department and the US sales representative to ensure that other countries do not apply any practices that increase prices in the United States while keeping them low abroad.

The order also aims at the pharmacy beefiz manager, the so-called middlemen between manufacturers and insurers, which Trump has cast in the past. HHS demands that the patient get a way to buy their medication directly from manufacturers, whereby these intermediate dealers are bypassing.

And it builds on Trump's April -Executive Order, which facilitated the introduction of changes in the Medicare program for drug price negotiations and facilitating medication from Canada.

It is unclear when – and whether – the Americans will see lower prices.

In a social post in truth on Monday morning, Trump wrote: “Drug prices are reduced by 59%.”

This was followed by a post from Sunday evening that promised: “Prescription medication and pharmaceutical prices are reduced almost immediately by 30% to 80%.

This story and heading have been updated with additional developments.