White House publishes Trump executive order aimed at lowering drug prices

President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order intended “to bring the prices Americans and taxpayers pay for prescription drugs in line with those paid by similar nations,” the White House announced. “The Order directs the U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce to take action to ensure foreign countries are not engaged in practices that purposefully and unfairly undercut market prices and drive price hikes in the United States. The Order instructs the Administration to communicate price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to establish that America, the largest purchaser and funder of prescription drugs in the world, gets the best deal. The Secretary of Health and Human Services will establish a mechanism through which American patients can buy their drugs directly from manufacturers who sell to Americans at a “Most-Favored-Nation” price, bypassing middlemen. If drug manufacturers fail to offer most-favored-nation pricing, the Order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) propose rules that impose most-favored-nation pricing; and (2) take other aggressive measures to significantly reduce the cost of prescription drugs to the American consumer and end anticompetitive practices,” the White House stated. Publicly traded drugmakers include AstraZeneca (AZN), Bristol Myers (BMY), Eli Lilly (LLY), Novo Nordisk (NVO), GSK (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), Roche (RHHBY) and Sanofi (SNY). Companies involved the sale of pharmaceuticals include CVS Health (CVS), Cigna (CI), UnitedHealth (UNH), Cardinal Health (CAH), McKesson (MCK) and Cencora (COR).