Trump tries to reduce the drug prices through Medicare and some imports
President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday, in which a number of measures to reduce drug prices, including the support of states, import drugs from Canada.
The guidelines were more modest than suggestions for reducing pharmaceutical prices, which Mr. Trump offered during his first term.
And one of his new guidelines could increase drug prices. It demands that the Trump administration works with the congress to change a law of 2022 in a way that could relax a negotiation program to reduce the expenditure of Medicare for frequently used or costly drugs.
Such a change has the potential to increase the costs of the government, since it would most likely delay the existing schedule for some medication in order to calculate the Medicare price reductions.
Depending on how it structures, it could increase the drug expenditure of Medicare by billions of dollars compared to expenditure according to the applicable law. The negotiation program was approved by a democratically controlled congress and supported by former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The executive regulation states that changes to the Medicare price negotiation program should “be connected to other reforms in order to prevent an increase in the total costs for Medicare and its beneficiaries”.
Experts for drug prices said that other guidelines in the executive regulation had the potential to save money for patients and government programs with the exception of the Medicare negotiation proposal. None of the actions were important changes that would lead to enormous savings.
A provision would reduce the additional payments that some people exposed to Medicare, to reduce treatments such as chemotherapy infusions in certain clinics and outpatient hospital locations. Another would enable certain people with lower incomes to access strongly reduced insulin and adrenaline injections.
The executive order on Tuesday was the most prominent step that Mr. Trump’s second government has so far taken the drug prices.
This was followed by Mr. Trump’s decision to get closer to the summon of tariffs for imported pharmaceuticals that the manufacturers will probably try. This could force governmental programs, employers and patients to pay more for some medication, and could tighten the bottlenecks of critical medication.
Some of the guidelines, such as the change in the Medicare negotiation program, would require the consent of the congress. The pharmaceutical industry has violently rejected some of the ideas in the executive order and supported others.
For a long time, Mr. Trump has complained that the United States pays much more than other wealthy countries for the same drugs. Remarkably, the order of a most preferred pricing policy of the nation, which he suggested in his first term, was remarkable to bring us closer to those who pay the peer countries. Like some of Mr. Trump’s first guidelines at drug prices, his favorite nation plan was discontinued by federal courts. Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign declined the propagation last autumn.
Here is a breakdown of some of the most remarkable parts of Mr. Trump’s executive order.
Elimination of the “pill penalty”
The order leads Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, with the congress, a difference in the way certain types of medication are treated in the Medicare negotiation program.
According to the law, pills and other drugs that are produced by synthetic processes cannot be considered for price reductions if they have been on the market for nine years. Medicines known as biologicals – made from living cells and often specified as an infusion would not be justified for 13 years.
The drug makers, who unsuccessfully sued the federal government for the program, call bitter the difference as a “pills”. They say they discourage them from the development of medication because they have less time to achieve sales before the price reductions are received and patients withdraw new treatments. You have campaigned for pills to be freed from the price reductions from the price reductions for 13 years instead of nine.
The legislator has introduced laws that would change the law to treat the two types of drugs alike.
The president’s arrangement does not indicate how many years every kind of drugs from Medicare should be liberated.
In a statement on Tuesday, Alex Schriver said that an official from the main drug industry, Phrma, that his organization would work with the Trump administration and the congress to “promote solutions for common sense that reduce costs and improve access for Americans”.
Biden officials monitor the first round of negotiations in the program and lead to price reductions that will come into force in 2026. The Trump administration monitors negotiations this year for lower prices in 2027 for drugs, including the blockbuster weight loss medication sold as Ozempische and Wegovy.
The White House said on Tuesday in a fact that the Medicare negotiation program wanted to bring in more savings for the government than the bidges last year. That would be difficult if the congress reduces the time in which Medicare can achieve lower prices.
Import drugs from Canada
The Executive Order indicates the Food and Drug Administration to improve the process by the states for importing lower medicines from Canada.
During his first term, Mr. Trump created a way that enabled the states to pursue these imports. As part of the bidges, the FDA approved an import program in Florida. Florida had not yet started importing drugs from Canada by the end of last year. The pharmaceutical industry contradicts the idea because it would reduce its profits to the profit.
If Mr. Trump follows to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals, it would be unlikely that the import of drugs from Canada will offer the same savings as in the past.
Various co-plays in different clinics
The order calls for rules to compensate for the fees that doctors are paid for in the administration of medication to patients in all environments.
At the moment, many medical practices that belong to hospitals can collect higher fees than independent practices, even for exactly the same services. Since Medicare beneficiaries are often responsible for a percentage of their doctor bills, these higher costs for visits are passed on in the form of additional payments.
The efforts to discuss such payments on the whole on the whole have been discussed in the congress on two parties for years, but have been subjected to hospitals, the information to require the higher payments. The legislation adopted during the Obama government dealt with some of these payment differences.
Encourable cheaper imitators
Mr. Trump instructed the FDA to give recommendations for the tightening of permits for generics and biosimilars, which are more effective imitators of biological medication.
The first biosimilar was approved in 2015, with dozens more approved since then. There was widespread hope that biosimilars would displace patent-protected brand biologicals such as Humira for diseases such as arthritis that increase the drug costs. However, the patients have switched slowly and savings are not worked as quickly as many wanted.
Insulin for the poor
Mr. Trump has revived an executive order from his first term in which the health clinics of the community health clinics in insulin and adrenaline injections were provided at certain prices to certain people with lower incomes, including the non-insured.
The clinics beat back when Mr. Trump suggested the idea in 2020 for the first time. The Biden administration soon inspired the regulation and said that it had generated too much administrative burden for the clinics.
