Trump signs executive order aiming to reduce drug prices
Published on May 13, 2025
By IANS
- WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at
lowering drug prices, demanding that drug companies offer prices for prescription
drugs comparable to those in other developed nations.
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- "The Order instructs the Administration to
communicate price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to establish that
America, the largest purchaser and funder of prescription drugs in the world,
gets the best deal," the order said.
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- Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
will establish a mechanism through which American patients can buy their drugs
directly from manufacturers who sell to Americans at a "Most-Favored-Nation"
price, bypassing middlemen, it continued.
- "We are going to pay the lowest price there is in
the world. Whoever is paying the lowest price, that's the price that we're
going to get," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday, before
departing for the Middle East.
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- Trump said drugmakers would have to lower their US prices
to the level paid by other developed countries, or could face investigation,
Xinhua news agency reported.
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- According to recent data, the prices Americans pay for
brand-name drugs are more than three times the price other OECD nations pay,
even after accounting for discounts manufacturers provide in the United States,
the order noted.
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- OECD stands for the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development, with the majority of its members being developed
nations.
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- The United States has less than five percent of the
world's population, yet funds roughly 75 per cent of global pharmaceutical
profits, according to the order.
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