ABC News(WASHINGTON) — President Trump briefly spoke in his meeting with pharmaceutical industry leaders on Tuesday, telling executives that drug prices need to come down and pledging to streamline the approval of new drugs.
“We have to get prices down for a lot of reasons,” Trump said. “We have no choice. For Medicare, for Medicaid, we have to get the prices way down so that’s what we’re gonna be talking about.”
“We’re also gonna be streamlining the process, so that, from your standpoint, when you have a drug, you can actually get it approved if it works, instead of waiting for many, many years,” he added.
The president said that pricing has been “astronomical,” and the key to lower drug prices is competition in the marketplace.
“The U.S. drug companies have produced extraordinary results for our country, but the pricing has been astronomical for our country. Gonna do better,” he said. “New drugs have led to longer, healthier lives; we all know that. But we have to do better.”
“I’ll oppose anything that makes it harder for smaller, younger companies to take the risk of bringing a product to a vibrantly competitive market. That includes price fixing by the biggest dog in the market, Medicare, which is what’s happening. But we can increase competition and bidding wars big-time,” Trump noted.
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
