President Trump’s top health official said “change is coming” to drug pricing in the wake of a new round of price hikes.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar’s comments followed Trump’s tweet at Pfizer for raising drug prices last week on more than 40 products, more than a month after Trump said that drug companies would voluntarily lower drug prices “in two weeks.”
Azar said Monday “the drug companies that recently increased prices will be remembered for creating a tipping point in U.S. drug pricing policy.”
He then referenced Trump’s tweet, stressing the “American people have noticed.”
“Change is coming to prescription drug pricing, whether it’s painful or not for pharmaceutical companies,” said Azar at the 340B Coalition summer meeting in Washington. The coalition is a group of hospitals and providers that support the drug discount program called 340B.
Azar said that it is true that “several drug companies” are contemplating substantial and material decreases in list prices.
“This is true. Unfortunately, many pharma companies, [pharmacy benefit managers], and distributors are perfectly fine with list price cuts, but only if they can have their cake and eat it, too,” Azar said.
He added that the administration hopes to restore transparency.
“Most significantly, we are examining whether we need to disrupt the entire system of rebates, which drives list prices ever higher while patients keep paying more,” he said. “Eliminating rebates within the Medicare program, pushing the system toward fixed-price discounts, is well within our administrative powers.”
Critics have said the blueprint is inadequate because it doesn’t do enough to get drugmakers to lower list prices.
