New U.S. “Agreement” with the U.K. is a Win for Big Pharma, Not Consumers
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Health and Human Services announced that — facing the threat of the Trump Administration’s tariffs on pharmaceuticals and medical technology or other potential trade sanctions — the United Kingdom reached an “agreement in principle” with the United States to raise its spending on prescription drugs. The announcement also reiterated the Trump administration’s intent to target other countries’ pharmaceutical pricing practices.
“Drug prices are far too high everywhere, including in the UK, backed by patent monopolies and contributing to rationing and preventable suffering,” said Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Director. “This outrageous giveaway to Big Pharma does nothing to lower prices in the United States. It only hurts UK patients while distracting from the serious action needed at home to hold Pharma accountable and make medicine affordable and available for all.”
Public Citizen released a brief challenging the false notion that prescription drug prices are too high in the U.S. because they are too low elsewhere, and that raising prices abroad will lower them in the United States. Public Citizen reiterated this to the U.S. Trade Representative in response to their request for comments regarding supposed ‘foreign freeloading.’ Earlier this year, organizations wrote the European Commission and published a reality check about resisting Big Pharma pressure amid Trump’s tariff chaos.