Last night, the Trump administration released a new Executive Order claiming it would lower drug prices.
In the light of day, it’s clear the order is nothing but a bunch of vague promises coupled with one real action: a plan to RAISE the prices patients pay for prescription drugs by delaying the negotiation of lower prices even longer on some of the most typical drugs people rely on.
Take a look for yourself.
REUTERS: “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.”
NEW YORK TIMES: “The policies were more modest than proposals to reduce drug prices that Mr. Trump offered in his first term. And one of his new directives could increase drug prices. It calls for the Trump administration to work with Congress to change a 2022 law in a way that could defang a negotiation program meant to reduce Medicare’s spending on commonly used or costly drugs.”
AXIOS: “The order that Trump signed on Tuesday may be sweeping, but consists largely of ideas that have already been floated or even tried before. The directive is light on details of how some of the policies will be implemented.”
THE HILL: “A new executive order signed Tuesday by President Trump directs Congress to change a key provision of the law allowing Medicare drug price negotiations, a move that would fix one of the drug industry’s biggest complaints.”
WALL STREET JOURNAL: “The drug price-negotiation program, created by the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, has been a sore point for the pharmaceutical industry. […] Since the law’s passage in 2022, the industry has pushed to address the eligibility requirement…”
WASHINGTON POST: “Trump also said he would build on a popular program launched by the Biden administration to directly negotiate the price of drugs with the pharmaceutical industry — but support a change sought by the industry, which has called for delaying the period before negotiations can begin on some of the priciest medications, a category known as small-molecule drugs. […] Some congressional Republicans have introduced legislation to delay the negotiations, echoing the drug industry’s argument that the current timeline is too aggressive…”