Donald Trump has said he has signed a new executive order aimed at lowering the cost of medicines in the United States.
Critics of America’s healthcare system – among then progressives such as Bernie Sanders – have long denounced the fact that prescription medicine costs far more in the US compared to other nations.
The president has often vowed to take on big pharma, which benefits from the fact the government does not regulate prices, unlike many countries where government agencies negotiate prices for every drug.
During the 2016 campaign he said he would lower their cost, and his first speech to the joint houses of Congress in February 2017, he vowed to “bring them down immediately”.
Thank God. After this week, I think I need a Xanax.
This could be good news if he is able to get it done. I’m two months into taking a prescription that costs $300.00 per pill. Fortunately I only take one a day.
Part of the problem with the other countries that regulate prices is that it prevents the drug companies from passing along R&D costs. Therefore the U.S. citizen has to pay those costs for the whole world. Part of the solution should be that those countries should have to pay the U.S. to import the drugs.
Although this seems like a sly move, because if the Dems fight him on this, it makes them look as if they don’t care about Americans having lower drug prices.
Not like they really care about a better life for Americans, the last few weeks have shown us this. So it will be intriguing to see how this pans out.
There’s too many prescription drugs being pushed on patients.
Doctors don’t practice medicine now.
They are chemical engineers.
Elderly people with scrips for 8-10-15 or more pills every day, many of them dealing with the side effects of other drugs being taken.
Crazy.
Cynic: Your point is well taken. Also, let the shareholders provide the research funds via their share price. This time the medicine will have to amortize over time rather than immediately breaking the backs of those needing it.
This link is for a story in The Independent, which is a notorious anti-Trump publication in the UK. Can we link to another more reliable source?
We’re tired of America carrying the world – and getting shit on in return.
Go ask Alice…..I think she’ll know
There go the pharmaceutical sales girls and pill suitcases.
joe6pak
Wow! Does that pill make you invisible and see through walls?
(That sucks, btw. *Sigh*)
MJA, it’s Ambrisentan. A tiny little pill, smaller diameter than a pencil eraser, about an eighth of an inch thick. I don’t know how many uses it has, but for me it’s prescribed to open blood vessels in my lungs. It seems to be working, I’m able to do more than I was for a while.
Joe,
Ambrisentan is a good example of the tiered price structure that makes buying medicine so frustrating. At GoodRx you can buy it (10mg), w/o insurance, for $60 per pill (5mg as low as $26.50). Lower prices are available for insurers and the government.
While in India (where it is probably made and imported into US) it is advertised 10 pills of 10mg each for 2350 Rupees. That is $32 for 10 pills. That is the screwing Americans are taking to fund drug makers’ windfall profits and the rest of the world’s medical research.
https://www.medindia.net/drug-price/ambrisentan/endobloc-10mg.htm
Major Mal Function, that doesn’t surprise me. It’s a sorry state of affairs. Covid drugs and a future vaccine will be another scam and ripoff.