Trump deadline for drugmakers to lower prices comes due : NPR

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Time is up for 17 drugmakers that obtained letters from the Trump administration this summer time. The letters gave the corporate 60 days to reply to the administration’s calls for to decrease their costs. NPR prescribed drugs correspondent Sydney Lupkin is right here to fill us in on what’s taking place. Hello, Sydney.

SYDNEY LUPKIN, BYLINE: Hello, Scott.

DETROW: So remind us, what does the administration need from these firms?

LUPKIN: Yeah, the primary objective is to decrease the costs People pay for name-brand medicine and put them according to what different developed international locations pay, which is usually so much much less. There was an govt order pushing that concept in Could, however in August the Trump administration wasn’t happy with what it was listening to from the drug firms, so it despatched letters to 17 of them with a listing of calls for – decrease costs in Medicaid, for instance. Launch new medicine at costs that match what individuals in different international locations are paying. Promote some medicine on to shoppers at decrease costs.

That stated, this could all be voluntary, however the letters carried a risk saying, quote, “should you refuse to step up, we’ll deploy each instrument in our arsenal to guard American households from continued abusive drug pricing practices.”

DETROW: So what have the businesses completed with this?

LUPKIN: So I reached out to all 17 firms that bought a letter. Most did not reply to me or declined to remark. Others touted modifications in press releases, like Bristol Myers Squibb. It stated it’ll supply its blood thinner Eliquis and a plaque psoriasis drug on to shoppers at a reduction. It additionally says it’ll launch its new schizophrenia drug within the U.Ok. on the identical value it’s within the U.S., which, by the way in which, is sort of two grand a month. So no financial savings there for People. However total, it would not sound just like the Trump administration bought the pledges of widespread value reductions it hoped for. Juliette Cubanski is a Medicare drug pricing professional on the nonpartisan analysis group KFF.

JULIETTE CUBANSKI: This administration has a behavior of form of setting deadlines and blowing previous them with out something actually taking place.

LUPKIN: She says now that the deadline is right here, the administration might need to pivot to laws or rulemaking to get what it needs.

DETROW: So what’s our sense at this second about what this implies for shoppers?

LUPKIN: It should take just a little longer to determine that out. The businesses should still do some issues in response to the administration’s stress, and there are a number of actions already, however they may not translate to decrease costs at U.S. pharmacy counters. For instance, after getting its letter in August, Eli Lilly stated that it will increase the worth of its Sort 2 diabetes drug Mounjaro within the U.Ok. And Lilly was clear in its announcement this was mainly due to the Trump administration. However that does not essentially imply the worth will go down right here within the U.S.

DETROW: Then how do tariffs match into all of this? As a result of that is been such a giant theme of this 12 months.

LUPKIN: The Trump administration is making an attempt all types of issues on the identical time. It is pushing to get drug firms to construct factories within the U.S. by tariffing some drug imports beginning subsequent month, and that would increase costs. Steve Ubl, the CEO of the drug firm commerce group PhRMA, wrote that its members dedicated to spending 500 billion on infrastructure within the U.S. over the following few years. Nevertheless it’s exhausting to know the way the Trump administration’s actions will play out as a result of they’re taking place by way of govt order and public stress. That is in contrast to laws that will get scored by the Congressional Price range Workplace. In that case, you possibly can see how a lot cash it’ll value or save taxpayers, and we simply haven’t got that right here.

DETROW: Acquired it. That’s NPR prescribed drugs correspondent Sydney Lupkin. Thanks a lot.

LUPKIN: You wager.

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