You’re Wrong, President Trump. Raising Drug Prices Abroad Won’t Lower Them at Home.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, Donald Trump discussed prescription drug prices for 12 minutes at the Make America Healthy Again commission report release, claiming he would dramatically lower U.S. drug prices by pressuring other countries to raise theirs.
Public Citizen Access to Medicines Director Peter Maybarduk released the following statement:
“Raising drug prices anywhere is a terrible idea that leads to suffering and treatment rationing.
“The way to lower U.S. drug prices is to actually lower them. But Trump has yet to come up with a workable plan to do so, and in fact, his current plan would raise American drug prices by supporting Big Pharma’s lobbying blitz to undermine Medicare drug price negotiations.
“Americans pay three times what other wealthy countries pay for the same drugs. The problem isn’t that drug prices are too low in those countries, it’s that prices are outrageously high here. Instead of sabotaging Medicare price negotiation – the first major progress to lower drug prices in decades – the government should strengthen it, including by removing negotiation delays and limiting the prices Medicare pays to those paid by our peer nations.
“The bully tactics Trump imagines to force higher drug prices through U.S. foreign policy aren’t new. For decades, the U.S. Trade Representative has threatened other countries with trade sanctions when they try to make medicine affordable. Big Pharma pressure can be deadly in developing countries. All Trump’s plan is likely to achieve is more suffering and death.”