President makes push to convey down drug costs which have lengthy been a supply of economic pressure for US sufferers.
United States President Donald Trump has signed an government order that he says will convey down the worth of pharmaceuticals within the US by as a lot as 90 p.c.
In an announcement on Monday, Trump stated drug firms who’ve been “profiteering” must convey costs down however laid the blame for top costs totally on overseas international locations.
“We’re going to equalise,” Trump stated throughout a information convention. “We’re all going to pay the identical. We’re going to pay what Europe pays.”
Folks within the US have lengthy been an outlier on the subject of the costs they pay for quite a few forms of life-saving treatment, typically paying a number of occasions greater than their friends in different wealthy international locations for practically an identical medication.
That phenomenon is usually attributed to the substantial financial and political affect that the pharmaceutical business wields within the US.
The excessive price of medical medication has been a supply of well-liked discontent within the US for years, and Trump accused the pharmaceutical business of “getting away with homicide” in 2017.
However in his remarks on Monday, the US chief additionally appeared to say that US pharmaceutical firms weren’t finally accountable for the distinction in costs. Trump as a substitute framed these excessive costs within the acquainted phrases of a commerce imbalance with companions such because the European Union and stated the US has been “subsidising” decrease drug costs in different nations.
That perspective appears to align with the framing of the pharmaceutical business itself. The business’s strongest lobbying arm said the reason for excessive costs for US customers is “overseas international locations not paying their fair proportion”.
Senator Bernie Sanders, a left-wing politician who has railed in opposition to the excessive costs paid by US sufferers for years, stated Trump’s order wrongly blames overseas international locations fairly than US firms for these costs.
“I agree with President Trump: it’s an outrage that the American individuals pay, by far, the very best costs on the planet for pharmaceuticals,” Sanders stated in an announcement.
“However let’s be clear: the issue just isn’t that the worth of pharmaceuticals is just too low in Europe and Canada. The issue is that the terribly grasping pharmaceutical business remodeled $100bn in earnings final yr by ripping off the American individuals.”
A truth sheet shared by the White Home stated the administration will “talk worth targets to pharmaceutical producers to ascertain that America, the biggest purchaser and funder of pharmaceuticals on the planet, will get the most effective deal”.
Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr speaks after President Donald Trump signed an government order on drug costs on the White Home in Washington, DC, on Might 12, 2025 (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Picture)
The inventory costs of US drugmakers ticked upwards after the announcement. Specialists have solid doubt on Trump’s optimistic assertion that drug costs would drop rapidly and considerably.
“It actually does appear the plan is to ask producers to voluntarily decrease their costs to some level which isn’t identified,” Rachel Sachs, a well being legislation skilled at Washington College in St Louis, Missouri, informed The Related Press information company.
“If they don’t decrease their costs to the specified level, HHS (the Division of Well being and Human Providers) shall take different actions with a really lengthy timeline, a few of which might probably, years sooner or later, decrease drug costs.”
