President Donald Trump sent letters to 17 drug manufacturers last week, outlining steps they must take to bring the prices of prescription drugs in the United States down to match the lowest price offered in other developed nations (known as the most-favored-nation, or MFN, price).
The steps include:
- Calling on manufacturers to provide MFN prices to every single Medicaid patient.
- Requiring manufacturers to stipulate that they will not offer other developed nations better prices for new drugs than prices offered in the United States.
- Providing manufacturers with an avenue to cut out PBMs and sell medicines directly to patients, provided they do so at a price no higher than the best price available in developed nations.
- Using trade policy to support manufacturers in raising prices internationally, provided that increased revenues abroad are reinvested directly into lowering prices for American patients and taxpayers.
In the event the drug manufacturers “refuse to step up,” the letters stated that the federal government “will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices.”
Trump sent letters to: AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron, and Sanofi.
NCPA will keep its members posted on developments and any intel that would impact reimbursement to pharmacies.
