Share
Trump Said Pharmaceutical Industry Would Cut Prices. It Hasn’t Happened. He's a Liar.
Trump lies every day. It's unclear how many of these he's knowingly lying versus simply being a complete idiot. Either way, nothing he says can be believed.
Trump said at the end of May that drug companies were about to make “voluntary, massive drops in prices” in two weeks. Two weeks later, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar backed down from that timeline, testifying to Congress that drug companies “want to execute substantial material reductions in their drug prices” but were facing hurdles.
But after more than a year of promises to lower drug prices, the silence following Trump's recent remarks suggests that the bully pulpit may not offer the swiftest solution to the problem of high drug prices.
In fact, companies are raising their prices, including mega giant Pfizer earlier this week!
Some drug companies are raising their prices. In early June, 10 major drug companies responded....without any specific plans to reduce prices. Bayer hiked the prices of two cancer drugs by more than $1,000 a month two weeks after Trump unveiled his drug price plan. Novartis said it plans to raise the prices of some drugs this year. On June 12, it increased the price of the cancer drug Mekinist by five percent, the second increase for that drug this year.
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer raised prices on about 100 drugs this week, the second round of increases for the company this year. Overall, many of the drugs’ prices have increased by double-digit percentages this year.....
So what is actually happening on the topic of making it affordable for our people to obtain life changing medicine?
The first company to make a “voluntary, massive” price drop, even on a single drug, is likely to be celebrated by the administration.
Voluntary price cuts are “not actual policy that would lead to robust, sustainable change in the marketplace,” said Peter Bach, director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see some action by the industry that would be characterized as 'Here are these big price drops,' just as a political or optical concession to the administration. What will probably happen is some price will drop by 20 percent, and they'll raise their price on other products by 50 percent.”
Health experts say a few drugs here and there could have prices lowered but it will be a stunt for Trump and Republicans to grab headlines. The reality:
Adam Fein, president of Pembroke Consulting and an expert on the drug supply chain, said that it was “difficult, perhaps impossible,” for drugmakers to lower their prices. “Cutting the list price means wholesalers make less money, pharmacies make less money....” Fein said. “It’s part of the completely insane, backward nature of our drug channel system, and it has precisely the wrong incentives.”
Source:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pfizer-raises-prices-for-dozens-of-drugs-1530560714