The IRA requires drugmakers to sell selected patented drugs to the government for its Medicare Parts B & D programs at a stipulated "maximum fair price". If they don't agree to these prices, then they face tax penalties on sales of the drug exceeding their profits from it, or the exclusion of all their drugs from Medicare and Medicaid purchases. This would foreclose access to up to 160 million patients, accounting for around 40% of US prescription drug spending or 20% of global prescription drug spending.
Trump also proposed to stop "sending big insurance companies billions in extra taxpayer-funded subsidy payments" and instead send the money directly to eligible Americans through their health savings account so they can purchase their own health insurance, according to a fact sheet. The plan would fund a cost-sharing reduction program for health plans and end kickbacks from pharmacy benefit managers to brokerage middlemen as well.
Drugmakers plan to raise U.S. prices on at least 350 branded medications including vaccines against COVID, RSV and shingles and blockbuster cancer treatment Ibrance, even as the Trump administration pressures them for cuts, according to data provided exclusively by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors. The number of price increases for 2026 is up from the same point last year, when drugmakers unveiled plans for raises on more than 250 drugs.
What he's saying is if a drug was $100 and you bring the drug down to $13 right? If you're looking at it from $13 it's down seven times Lutnick attempted to explain in a rambling response.It's 700 percent higher [than] before, it's down 700 percent now, right? So $13 would have to go up 700 percent to get back to the old one, Lutnick continued. So it all depends on when you look at it. You could say it's down 87 percent or you could say it would have to go up 700 percent to be the same one. So it just depends on what you look at it, he repeated.
The chief executive of GSK yesterday declared the US to be the best place for pharmaceutical companies to invest. Emma Walmsley said the US led the world in launches of drugs and vaccines and, alongside China, was the best market for business development. She is the latest boss of a leading UK drugmaker to talk up business opportunities on the other side of the Atlantic, after AstraZeneca's Pascal Soriot hailed the vital importance of the US.
Live TV coverage of the event shows Novo Nordisk executive Gordon Findlay slumping to the floor inside the Oval Office, with several men nearby helping to guide his body safely to the ground. Medicare and Medicaid administrator Mehmet Oz grabbed Findlay under the shoulders to help him to the ground. Trump stands up from behind his desk in the Oval Office, but doesn't intervene. Health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. can be seen walking briskly away from Findlay.
During a press conference in the Oval Office and surrounded by many of his most senior aides, including HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump revealed that two of the world's largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, Eli Lilly and Novartis, will offer weight loss drugs at drastic discounts. So far, never heard anything bad about them, only good about them, Trump ad libbed from his prepared remarks before asking his Kennedy, Is there anything bad about them, Bobby?
Something just wasn't adding up when Dr. Mehmet Oz - the current administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid service - tried to explain president Trump's new drug pricing scheme. That something was his brain trying to make sense of pretty simple math. During an interview on the NBC News "Meet the Press" segment on Wednesday, Oz was asked about Trump's absurd claim that he slashed prescription drug prices by up to "1,500 percent" - and completely lost it.
"We believe that easy access to PrEP medications is critical for Americans who may be exposed to HIV," Gourdine wrote. "Our formularies cover several PrEP options, both injectable and oral. For drugs excluded from our standard formularies, exceptions are available when medically justified."
"FDA policymakers have tried to come up with ideas to speed important products to market. ... It is in part directed to achieving some of the (Trump) Administration's goals," said Chad Landmon, chair of Polsenelli's patent and FDA practice.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I will tell you that we are going to be doing numbers on the cost of drugs in this country, that it's I'm not talking about a 20 percent decrease, which would be good. I'm talking about 1,000 percent decrease. We're talking about where a product would sell for $80 in Germany, and $1,300 here, and we're not going to do that.
CVS Health's decision is a clear violation of the ACA's requirement to cover USPSTF-recommended preventive services, including PrEP. The entire world is excited by this drug and its potential contribution to preventing and eventually ending HIV. However, a drug will only work if people can access it and right now CVS Health, which owns the largest pharmacy benefit manager in the country, is shamefully blocking people from taking it, unlike other payers.
