An executive order from President Trump aims to make deep cuts to prescription drug costs, putting GOP lawmakers who have traditionally opposed government-directed drug pricing in a tough position.
Republican lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.) and Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso (Wyo.), have warned in the past that directing the federal government to set drug prices will slow innovation and limit patients’ access to lifesaving therapies.
Now they’re in the tough position of having to respond to Trump’s latest move, which would cut deeply into pharmaceutical companies’ profits.
The industry, which contributes generously to members of both parties, warns that Trump’s proposed reform could jeopardize hundreds of billions of dollars in research and development investments.
Thune said Monday that Trump’s executive order would be “fairly controversial” if put into legislation on Capitol Hill, reflecting his party’s longtime skepticism of using Medicare’s huge buying power to pressure drug companies to lower prices.
“My assumption is that would be fairly controversial up here if we were doing it … legislatively,” Thune said of Trump’s executive order on drug pricing. Trump’s executive order directs the secretary of Health and Human Services to work with the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to “communicate most-favored-nation price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to bring prices for American patients in line with comparably developed nations.”
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