by John Damellos
Trump is good for big business, a champion of Wall Street. For average Americans, however, especially those in need, he's bad medicine. And a liar. He says he is planning to lay out a broad strategy to reduce prescription drug prices, by “negotiating with the greater powers of the private sector”. That's BS and every single healthcare journalist or professional involved in the drug channel knows it. His grandiose plan “putting American patients first” is just a cheap trick, like his 2016 proposal to call for Medicare to negotiate lower prices with Big Pharma. When he had made that proposal, it was popular with voters and he was still a candidate. Now he is the 45th US President and apparently it is more beneficial to him to stir the swamp than to drain it.
And that is exactly what he did yesterday. He criticized the broken system but he hardly put a scare into it. Following his address to the American people, Ronny Gal, a securities analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, told the N.Y.T. that the president’s speech was “very, very positive to pharma,” and he added, “We have not seen anything about that speech which should concern investors” in the pharmaceutical industry. And indeed, both S&P and NASDAQ biotech indices rose nearly 3%.
As Fortune Magazine puts it, the overall message from the White House was that "players up and down the drug supply chain —including insurers, pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), pharma firms, even federal agencies— along with foreign governments, will be taking advantage of failing American patients".
If you say so...
Based on four main pillars, such as increasing competition, better negotiation on prices, incentives to lower list drug prices, and reducing patients’ out-of-pocket spending, the so called "American Patients First," plan will be achieved through a variety of regulatory and legislative measures, says Fortune Magazine.
"Some are pretty technical, such as giving the Medicare Part D prescription drug program authority to negotiate lower prices for certain drugs under Medicare Part B. Others are more aspirational and politically controversial, such as Trump’s broadsides against foreign countries that supposedly “free ride” by paying less money for drugs than Americans through their single payer systems.
As Fortune Magazine puts it, the overall message from the White House was that "players up and down the drug supply chain —including insurers, pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), pharma firms, even federal agencies— along with foreign governments, will be taking advantage of failing American patients".
If you say so...
Based on four main pillars, such as increasing competition, better negotiation on prices, incentives to lower list drug prices, and reducing patients’ out-of-pocket spending, the so called "American Patients First," plan will be achieved through a variety of regulatory and legislative measures, says Fortune Magazine.
"Some are pretty technical, such as giving the Medicare Part D prescription drug program authority to negotiate lower prices for certain drugs under Medicare Part B. Others are more aspirational and politically controversial, such as Trump’s broadsides against foreign countries that supposedly “free ride” by paying less money for drugs than Americans through their single payer systems.
It’s unclear how increasing costs for foreign governments and patients would help reduce prices in the U.S., but Trump nonetheless framed the issue as “putting American patients first.”
FORTUNE
As CNBC reports, in a press briefing following the President's speech, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that "the administration is calling into question the entire system of rebates as the method of negotiating discounts in the pharmacy channel, because right now, every incentive is for the drug company to have a very high list price and to negotiate list price down, often in a very nontransparent way."
Yet, nobody can tell whether the administration follows through or not on actions that could change the ways of the drug channel. Even worse. Some analysts believe that drug prices are likely to go higher than lower. Knowing Trump -and Michael Cohen's relationship with Novartis and Big Pharma- only points out to that direction. The "putting Americans first" plan is just another Trumpist smoke screen, placed above the swamp, to carefully hide the truth from the ailing Americans.
Yet, nobody can tell whether the administration follows through or not on actions that could change the ways of the drug channel. Even worse. Some analysts believe that drug prices are likely to go higher than lower. Knowing Trump -and Michael Cohen's relationship with Novartis and Big Pharma- only points out to that direction. The "putting Americans first" plan is just another Trumpist smoke screen, placed above the swamp, to carefully hide the truth from the ailing Americans.
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