Biden Gets Aggressive on Drug Prices, Seeking Contrast with Trump

President Biden is leaning into lowering health care costs and picking fights with the drug industry to show what he could bring to a second term and contrast with likely GOP nominee former President Trump. 

Biden is embracing aggressive policies to tackle high drug prices and campaigning as someone willing to take on the pharmaceutical industry. 

Health care has consistently been a winning issue for Democrats in recent elections, and the president’s reelection campaign wants to highlight both present and future ways he is lowering costs for Americans.  

The administration last week announced it had the authority to “march in” and break the patents of drugs developed using taxpayer money if the administration considers them to be too expensive. 

In a short video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Biden said the move was a “very important step towards ending price gouging, so you don’t have to pay more for medicine than you need.”

Progressives have long called for the administration to exercise its so-called “march-in rights” on high-priced drugs, but the White House has been hesitant to even recognize it as a possibility.  

As a candidate in 2020, Biden was also reluctant to embrace the strategy, in contrast to challengers including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).  

Most recently, the administration declined a petition to force Pfizer and Astellas to lower the price of their cancer drug Xtandi, which costs between $160,000 and $180,000 per patient a year. 

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