What’s the story with Trump reducing drug prices?

As I heard it yesterday, he is trying again after a failed attempt. I don’t know if he made changes, so I don’t know how effective it will be. He was aiming high. It is one of his main goals.
Let’s keep fingers crossed! :-)

Trying to garner votes at the last minute after he realized he really hasn’t done anything over the last 4 years for the little people he claims he wants to help when he needs their votes. It’s like having a worker trying to prove they can work a few months before their contract is up. Oh, also after being responsible for so many deaths and illnesses and a wrecked economy while using secret police to really go after the peaceful protesters that make him look bad and do nothing really about the violent agitators because they give cause to his secret police to be there.

He hasn’t published the actual order. He told the drug companies he wants “most favored nation status”, so that they offer medicare the same price as they offer other countries.

Trump had a big meeting with pharmaceutical companies scheduled for Tuesday. After all the grandstanding about this order, the drug companies said fuck off, we are not coming to your photo op meeting.

The executive order can’t do anything.

I saw he signed with Pfizer for the Covid cure once done. Then something about capping insulin costs but I’ve forgotten the rest, sorry.

Frankly if it help just with insulin, I’d be happy since so many are affected.

Apparently some people are not in love with the idea, calling it a Democratic bad idea.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-drug-price-panic-11595798381

@KNOWITALL I noticed epipen and insulin mentioned in one article. Those are the medications the public is very aware of, so it seemed cherry picked, but then I wasn’t sure if Trump had mentioned those specifically or the author of the article. It seems like there needs to be all over regulation not just certain meds, but I agree insulin is a big one for a lot of people.

The article also talked about Trump wanting to allow Canada meds sold here or something like that.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what exactly was being proposed and what the effect would be, hence the Q.

@KNOWITALL Trump did not do a deal on a Covid cure. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense bought 100 million doses of a vaccine once approved. Trump was not involved.

If Trump is really trying to lower prices, why is it a Democrat bad idea?

@zenvelo Read the article I posted above.

So there’s apparently four executive orders regarding lowering drug prices.
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/07/24/trump-administration-announces-historic-action-lower-drug-prices-americans.html

Here is a summary from Politico of “the orders” and their effects:

President Donald Trump on Friday promised that his set of new executive orders would “completely restructure the prescription drug market.”

… But industry experts say that’s not so certain — and that any changes that do come could take several years.

Trump issued four executive orders — two of which were ensnared in heated debate in the hours ahead of the announcement, leaving even some officials in the dark. The orders target drug costs in government programs like Medicare as well as 340B, which provides heavy discounts on medicines to hospitals that serve low-income and marginalized communities.

But there weren’t many surprises in the language released Friday night. The 340B order would address only a narrow portion of the 340B providers, about 1,000. The importation order essentially retreads work already being done by states and FDA since a draft rule released in December.

And then the two big ones: The most-favored nations order has not been released, presumably because the president gave industry time to come up with a better option. So far, talks don’t seem promising — drug lobbies refused to send representatives to the White House for a meeting on the rule today.

“No matter what the plan, it would take several years to implement given the regulation cycle, the need to gather data, legal challenges and logistics issues,” writes Cowen analyst Rick Weissenstein.

The other order pertains to a so-called rebate rule, recently resurrected — then dropped, then brought to life once again — by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and HHS Secretary Alex Azar after it was withdrawn last summer. But it comes with a big caveat: Medicare can only eliminate rebates if the approach does not raise seniors’ premiums, federal spending and out-of-pocket costs. Projections that the rebate rule would do precisely that is what killed the original rule last summer.

The orders “garner attention but lack substance,” Morgan Stanley analyst David Risinger said in an investor note.

Industry fights back: Besides the White House snub today — which sources said came from the late notice and lack of detail about the administration’s plans — industry groups are swiftly launching counterattacks. The National Association of Manufacturers on Monday launched a six-figure television and digital ad campaign aimed at the favored nations rule and importation rules.