President Trump signed an executive order to lower the cost of prescription drugs, he called a “Most Favored Nation” (MFN).
The executive order requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to begin testing a Medicare payment model. The program would start paying the lowest price paid by governments of other developed countries.
Tweeting on Sunday, “Just signed a new Executive Order to LOWER DRUG PRICES! My Most Favored Nation order will ensure that our Country gets the same low price Big Pharma gives to other countries,” the president tweeted. “The days of global freeriding at America’s expense are over…”
Trump announced the order aims to reduce prices to give America “the same low price Big Pharma gives to other countries.”
He added, the prices “are coming down FAST! Also just ended all rebates to middlemen, further reducing prices,” in a follow-up twitter post.
“Other countries’ governments regulate drug prices by negotiating with drug manufacturers to secure bargain prices, leaving Americans to make up the difference — effectively subsidizing innovation and lower-cost drugs for the rest of the world,” the executive order declares (Sept. 14) explained in Section 1. The Council of Economic Advisers, an agency within the Executive Office of the President, found that “Americans finance much of the biopharmaceutical innovation that the world depends on, allowing foreign governments, many of which are the sole healthcare payers in their respective countries, to enjoy bargain prices for such innovations.”
The president signed a series of four orders in late July to lower drug prices, directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to take several steps to deliver patients lower costs on prescription drugs — this included insulin and epinephrine.
The White House said pharma companies have 30 days to propose a counteroffer on the current order.