President Donald Trump Orders Pharma Companies To Reduce Drug Prices To Match Foreign Counterparts

President Donald Trump Orders Pharma Companies To Reduce Drug Prices To Match Foreign Counterparts

Warns of stringent action if they fail to meet the goals

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices to match their counterparts abroad.

He gave a 30-day deadline to drugmakers to achieve price targets. The President cautioned that he would take further action to slash prices if the firms did not make ‘significant progress’ in this direction.

Seeking to cut drug prices by at least 59 percent, and in some cases 80-90 percent, through the wide-ranging order, Trump remarked, "Everybody should equalize and pay the same price.”

The President accused the European Union of ‘brutal’ tactics to make pharmaceutical firms sell drugs for lower prices on their territory. This meant the companies raised prices in the US to increase their profits.

"Whoever is paying the lowest price, that's the price that we're going to get," he asserted.

US aims to institute a ‘Most Favored Nation" policy that pins the cost of drugs sold in the US to the lowest price paid by other countries for the same drug.

President Trump added, "Even though the US is home to only 4 percent of the world's population, pharmaceutical companies make more than two-thirds of their profits in America. Everybody should pay the same.”