Administration announces plan to lower drug costs

On May 11, 2018, President Trump outlined a strategy that focuses on private-sector incentives to lower drug costs. The plan focused on four elements “increasing competition,” “better negotiation,” “creating incentives to lower list prices,” and “reducing patient out -of-pocket spending.

Health and Human Services (HHS) provided a fact sheet that outlined what the agency “may” do to try to force the private sector to comply with lowering the drug prices, including requiring companies to name their prices in advertisements. However, they stopped short of committing to anything.

Trump did, however, state that he was going to follow through on his campaign promise by pushing generic drugs through the FDA faster, make it harder for foreign countries to obtain US developed drugs at lower prices than Americans and cut out the middle men in the prescription drug industry. The President said “he will work every day to ensure all Americans have access to the quality affordable medication they need and they deserve…and we will not rest until this job of unfair pricing is a total victory for the USA.”