Senate and House Democrats thought when President Trump took office, they had a kindred spirit on how to combat high drug prices.
Throughout the campaign, Trump lashed out at pharma companies for “getting away with murder” and pledged to lower prices.
But five months later, Trump has yet to push for longstanding reforms such as giving Medicare the power to negotiate for lower drug prices. The White House is also reportedly drafting an executive order that some lawmakers say will be industry-friendly.
The most visceral response to Trump’s approach to drug prices comes from Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Peter Welch, D-Vt.
Both Democrats met with Trump in March and thought they had an understanding with him on how to handle high drug prices. Trump even said he would direct Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to look at their bill that gives Medicare negotiating power.
“Since our meeting three months ago, however, we have heard nothing more from Secretary Price,” the two lawmakers wrote in a letter to Trump last week.
The lawmakers were also upset at the shape of an executive order set to come out soon on high drug prices. The order is expected to include pharma-friendly perks such as protecting patents in foreign markets, according to several press reports. The order would also speed up approval of new drugs to entice competition and possibly lower prices.
That didn’t sit well with Cummings and Welch, who want lower prices, but not through the industry method.
“Your statements and your promises gave many of us hope, but your planned executive actions suggest you have abandoned these promises in favor of the very pharmaceutical lobby you warned of,” the letter said.
Asked for comment on the letter, the White House responded that it doesn’t get ahead of potential executive orders until they are ready to be announced.
But even if the order is different from what is reported, Trump has yet to put his White House heft behind Democratic reforms to address drug prices.
In the vacuum, Republicans are working to speed up approval of generic drugs in particular to offer more competition and lower prices. Democrats don’t like that route because lower prices wouldn’t be guaranteed.
Specifically, legislation from House and Senate committees winding its way through Congress to reauthorize user fee programs for the Food and Drug Administration contain some amendments to speed up approvals of new generic drugs. Drug and device makers pay the FDA a fee for every new drug or device application, and the agency, in turn, uses that money to speed up the approval of those products.
The program must be reauthorized every five years and acts as a must-pass vehicle at times for lawmakers to tack on FDA-related legislation.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has tried to add amendments for stricter, more liberal reforms to tackle drug prices, but they are likely to be voted down in the GOP-controlled Senate.
Sanders was not surprised by Trump’s turn on high drug prices and his approach to Democratic reforms.
“Not to my surprise, he is once again backing off completely from what he campaigned on,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., was also not shocked. “He made pledges during his campaign that he was going to take steps to really control drug prices. I haven’t seen much of that,” he told the Washington Examiner.
Sanders held a press conference with Cummings and several other lawmakers to reintroduce a bill that let Americans buy cheaper drugs from Canada. He said at the time that this was the chance for Trump to join them and take action on high drug prices.
But the bill has gone nowhere in the Senate and isn’t likely to at any time.
When asked now how he would get the drug-pricing reforms through the GOP-controlled Congress, Sanders said “we are gonna have to rally around the American people around sensible proposals so that we end the absurdity of having to pay twice as much for prescription drugs as any other country.”
