Trump tells drug makers to get prices down

President Donald Trump told drug makers at a White House meeting yesterday that they were charging too much and promised to get better bargains for government health programmes, as also finding ways to get new medicines to market faster.

''The pricing has been astronomical,'' Trump said to chief executives of some of the world's biggest drugmakers, who came to Washington after his criticism of the industry earlier this month saw drug and biotechnology stocks plunging. ''You folks have done a very great job over the years but we have to get the prices down.''

Trump had said government would negotiate prices directly with the industry on behalf of Medicare and Medicaid, which bought health-care products and services that cover millions of US citizens. ''Competition is key to lowering drug prices,'' the president said.

To help the industry lower pricing, Trump promised to cut regulations, get drugs to the market faster, and boost international competition. ''We're going to streamline FDA; we have a fantastic person'' that will be announced to lead the agency soon, Trump said. He added that taxes on business would be cut and companies would be encouraged to return to the US.

Executives from Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Celgene, Amgen, Eli Lilly, and the PhRMA trade group attended the meeting with Trump. House energy and commerce chairman Greg Walden (Republican Oregon) was also present.

Stephen Ubl, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)'s president and CEO, in a statement, ''Our industry takes seriously the concerns raised about the affordability and accessibility of prescription medicines, and we have expressed our commitment to working with the administration to advance market-based reforms," said. PhRMA which is the main lobbying group for the drug industry, described  the White House meeting as positive and productive.

"The current system needs to evolve to enable the private sector to lead the move to a value-driven health care system. To do this, we need to reform existing laws and regulations that are currently preventing private companies from negotiating better deals and paying for medicines based on the value they provide to patients and our health care system."