On July 31, the Trump administration told 17 major drugmakers to align U.S. medication prices with the lowest prices sold in other countries, or the most-favored-nation price.
The White House instructed drug manufacturers to provide their lowest drug prices to Medicaid patients, and to not offer other developed nations better prices than those in the U.S.
The administration sent letters to AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron and Sanofi.
If drugmakers “refuse to step up,” the letters said the U.S. government “will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices,” according to the White House.
Notably, the letters did not specify penalties or enforcement actions, according to CNBC. Moreover, President Donald Trump also does not have the authority to compel drugmakers to match U.S. drug prices to other countries, CNN reported.
The federal government also suggested drugmakers circumvent middlemen — or pharmacy benefit managers — and leverage trade policy to raise international drug prices and reinvest those earnings into lowering U.S. drug prices.
Over the last few months, several pharmaceutical companies have ventured into bypassing PBMs and selling medicines directly to patients. Roche is working with HHS to launch a direct-to-patient drug distribution model that sidesteps PBMs. Additionally, Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly have launched direct-to-patient offerings for some of their most popular drugs.
In April, Mr. Trump issued an executive order aimed at lowering drug prices. A month later, he urged manufacturers to match U.S. drug prices for brand-name drugs without generic or biosimilar competition to the lowest price available in select peer countries.
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