HHS says ‘taking immediate steps to implement’ Trump drug pricing order

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that it is taking “immediate steps to implement” President Trump’s Executive Order, “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients,” a central component of the Administration’s strategy to lower health care costs in the United States. “For too long, Americans have been forced to pay exorbitant prices for the same drugs that are sold overseas for far less,” said Secretary Kennedy. “That ends today. We expect pharmaceutical manufacturers to fulfill their commitment to lower prices for American patients, or we will take action to ensure they do.” The department added: “HHS expects each manufacturer to commit to aligning US pricing for all brand products across all markets that do not currently have generic or biosimilar competition with the lowest price of a set of economic peer countries. The MFN target price is the lowest price in an OECD country with a GDP per capita of at least 60 percent of the U.S. GDP per capita. These targets will drastically bring down U.S. drug prices, which are often three to five times higher than prices abroad, while preserving innovation by simply ensuring that Americans bear no greater burden than patients receiving the same drugs in other countries.” Publicly traded drugmakers include AstraZeneca (AZN), Bristol Myers (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), GSK (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), Roche (RHHBY) and Sanofi (SNY).