Trump is trying to strong-arm Big Pharma into hiking drug prices around the world.
Driving the news: The White House asked drug makers to fork over the pricing details of their contracts with other wealthy countries, including Canada. The Trump administration wants to use the confidential information to push pharmaceutical companies into offering lower drug prices in the U.S.
- Its goal is to set up a most favoured nation system that could force drug companies to match the lowest price they give elsewhere or risk losing access to the U.S. market.
Catch-up: The U.S. pays around three times more for drugs than its peers. That’s mostly because it lets drug companies set their prices freely, whereas countries like Canada use their purchasing power at a government level to cap or negotiate prices.
Why it matters: Experts say drug makers are more likely to raise prices in other countries than lower them in the U.S. Research modelling suggested that if U.S. prices for patented drugs were equal to or lower than Canada’s, prices here could jump by an average of 216%.
- In August, Eli Lilly announced a 170% price hike of its weight-loss drug Mounjaro in the U.K. to offset the cost of cutting prices in the States.
Bottom line: Previous efforts from the Trump administration to pull this off were unsuccessful, and given the confidentiality of pricing agreements, drug makers would be opening themselves up to a tsunami of lawsuits if they get on board.—LA