Trump gives drugmakers 30 days to cut prices

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump signed a wide-reaching executive order on Monday directing drugmakers to lower the prices of their medicines to align with what other countries pay, which analysts and legal experts said would be difficult to implement.

The order gives drugmakers price targets in the next 30 days, and will take further action to lower prices if those companies do not make “significant progress” towards those goals within six months of the order being signed.

Trump told a press conference that the government would impose tariffs on companies if the prices in the U.S. did not match those in other countries and said he was seeking cuts of between 59% and 90%.

Investors were sceptical about the order’s implementation, and shares, which had been down overnight on the threat of “most favored nation” pricing, recovered and rose in early morning trade on Monday. The United States pays the highest prices for prescription drugs, often nearly three times more than other developed nations.

Trump said his order on drug prices was partly a result of a conversation with an unnamed friend who told the president he got a weight loss injection for $88 in London and that the same injection in the U.S. cost $1,300.

A copy of the order showed that if drugmakers do not meet the government’s expectations, it will use rulemaking to bring drug prices to international levels and consider a range of other measures, including importing medicines from other developed nations and implementing export restrictions.

Trade groups representing biotech and pharmaceutical companies decried the move. Ubl said the real reasons for high drug prices are “foreign countries not paying their fair share and middlemen driving up prices for U.S. patients.” The order also directs the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to consider aggressive enforcement against what the government calls anti-competitive practices by drugmakers.

The White House officials did not specify any targets. Trump’s order also directs the government to consider facilitating direct-to-consumer purchasing programmes that would sell drugs at the prices other countries pay. It also orders the Secretary of Commerce and other agency heads to review and consider actions regarding the export of pharmaceutical drugs or ingredients that may contribute to price differences. The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.