Washington, D.C. – This evening, the Trump administration issued a new executive order designed by big drug companies to delay Medicare drug price negotiations, giving drug companies four extra years to price gouge seniors. In response, Protect Our Care Chair Leslie Dach issued the following statement:
“This executive order is a total giveaway to big drug companies who have been spending millions at Mar-a-Lago to have the ear of the President. Far from lowering costs for everyday Americans, the new order includes big drug companies’ number one lobbying priority: weakening Medicare’s power to negotiate lower prices for seniors. During Trump’s first term, he talked a big game about lowering drug prices, but instead delivered huge tax breaks for big drug companies while drug costs skyrocketed, and now he’s eager to do it again. The only winners here are the drug companies. Meanwhile the Inflation Reduction Act, passed solely by Democrats, is saving seniors and taxpayers billions.”
Background:
Reuters: Trump Signs Healthcare Executive Order That Includes a Win for Pharma Companies. “U.S. President Donald Trump directed his health department on Tuesday to work with Congress on revamping a law that allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, seeking to introduce a change the pharmaceutical industry has lobbied for. Drugmakers have been pushing to delay the timeline under which medications become eligible for price negotiations by four years for small molecule drugs, which are primarily pills and account for most medicines. That would align with the 13-year wait until more complex biotech drugs become eligible for Medicare price negotiations. [Reuters, 4/15/25]