At his first press conference as president-elect, Donald Trump said that he would change the way the country bids on drugs to bring spending and prices down. He accused the industry of “getting away with murder.”
“Pharma has a lot of lobbies, a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power. And there’s very little bidding on drugs. We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world, and yet we don’t bid properly,” Trump said.
The comment dropped a bomb into the middle of the drug industry’s major annual investor conference underway in San Francisco this week, sending pharmaceutical and biotech stocks plunging. The iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology Index was down 2.7 percent in mid-day trading.
AbbVie, a company that has repeatedly raised the list price of its blockbuster arthritis drug, Humira, was giving a presentation at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference when Trump called for new bidding procedures. Its stock price was down 2.6 percent in mid-day trading.
“What we fundamentally believe in is being able to bring innovative medicines to the marketplace that ultimately are not only beneficial to patients, but also, over the long term, are providing an economic benefit to the health care system,” said Richard Gonzalez, chief executive of AbbVie said. “I don’t have a crystal ball as to what changes the president has in mind.”
(c) 2017, The Washington Post · Carolyn Y. Johnson
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3 Responses
He is correct.
The drug industry is a business, not a charity, to be sure, and must make profits to remain operational, and to bring new medications to the people. That is why there are initial prices and patents. To continuously raise those prices, especially while the same drugs by the same manufacturer cost a fraction just over the border, is scandalous.
There are many citizens, with good insurance, who are still unable to afford the medicines they need. Forcing the insurers to pay for them, will only raise the premiums.
There has to be a way to lower the retail cost of lifesaving drugs, while preserving the pharmaceutical industry’s ability to produce and research.
This is but one example of healthcare industry providers gouging the public and fueling runaway inflation in the cost of living.
Glad to see he’s in agreement with Hillary