President Trump is absolutely relentless!
I truly don’t know when the man sleeps….
While I haven’t seen this 100% confirmed anywhere, I assume this is the “earth-shattering announcement” President Trump teased would be coming, and boy oh boy does it deliver on that promise!
For decades, Americans have been paying through the nose for prescription drugs, or indirectly paying through the nose for obscenely expensive healthcare insurance.
Today that changes.
By the stroke of a pen on a new Executive Order, President Trump has ordered “most favored nation” status for the United States for all of big pharma.
What’s that mean?
Basically, if you sell a drug to one country anywhere in the world for say $5, but you charge $500 in the USA for the same drug, that can no longer continue. You will now be legally required to match the $5 rate in the USA.
In other words, we will no longer subsidize healthcare costs for the rest of the world.
Watch here:
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
But starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries, which is what we were doing.
We’re subsidizing others’ healthcare—countries where they paid a small fraction of what we pay for the same drug, many, many times more.
And we’ll no longer tolerate profiteering and price-gouging from Big Pharma.
But again, it was really the countries that forced Big Pharma to do things that, frankly, I’m not sure they really felt comfortable doing.
But they’ve gotten away with it, these countries.
The European Union has been brutal—brutal.
And the drug companies actually told me stories.
It was just brutal how they forced them.
And the European Union is suing all our companies—Apple, and Google, Meta—they’re suing all our companies.
They end up, they have judges that are European Union-centric, and they get rewarded $15 billion, $17 billion, $20 billion, and they use that to run their operation.
It’s not gonna happen any longer, that I can tell you.
Here are more details, from Fox News:
President Donald Trump declared Monday that the U.S. “will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma” as he signed an executive order implementing what his administration is calling “most favored nations drug pricing.”
“The principle is simple – whatever the lowest price paid for a drug in other developed countries, that is the price that Americans will pay,” Trump said at the White House. “Some prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices will be reduced almost immediately by 50 to 80 to 90%.”
Trump said that “starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries, which is what we were doing. We’re subsidizing others’ healthcare, the countries where they paid a small fraction of what for the same drug that what we pay many, many times more for and will no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma.”
“Even though the United States is home to only 4% of the world’s population, pharmaceutical companies make more than two thirds of their profits in America. So think of that with 4% of the population, the pharmaceutical companies make most of their money. Most of their profits from America. That’s not a good thing,” Trump continued.
“I think, by the way, pharmaceutical – I have great respect for these companies and for the people that run them. I really do, and I think they did one of the greatest jobs in history for their company, convincing people for many years that this was a fair system. Nobody really understood why, but I figured it out. For years, pharmaceutical and drug companies have said that research and development costs were what they are, and for no reason whatsoever, they had to be borne by America alone,” Trump said. “Not anymore, they don’t.”
The White House said that the executive order “directs the U.S. Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce to take action to ensure foreign countries are not engaged in practices that purposefully and unfairly undercut market prices and drive price hikes in the United States.
“The Order instructs the Administration to communicate price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to establish that America, the largest purchaser and funder of prescription drugs in the world, gets the best deal,” the White House said.
“The Secretary of Health and Human Services will establish a mechanism through which American patients can buy their drugs directly from manufacturers who sell to Americans at a ‘Most-Favored-Nation’ price, bypassing middlemen,” the White House added. “If drug manufacturers fail to offer most-favored-nation pricing, the Order directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) propose rules that impose most-favored-nation pricing; and (2) take other aggressive measures to significantly reduce the cost of prescription drugs to the American consumer and end anticompetitive practices.”
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said alongside Trump, “I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime.”
Watch RFK Jr. here:
From WhiteHouse.gov, here is the full Executive Order:
DELIVERING MOST-FAVORED-NATION PRESCRIPTION DRUG
PRICING TO AMERICAN PATIENTS
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. The United States has less than five percent of the world’s population and yet funds around three quarters of global pharmaceutical profits. This egregious imbalance is orchestrated through a purposeful scheme in which drug manufacturers deeply discount their products to access foreign markets, and subsidize that decrease through enormously high prices in the United States.
The United States has for too long turned its back on Americans, who unwittingly sponsor both drug manufacturers and other countries. These entities today rely on price markups on American consumers, generous public subsidies for research and development primarily through the National Institutes of Health, and robust public financing of prescription drug consumption through Federal and State healthcare programs. Drug manufacturers, rather than seeking to equalize evident price discrimination, agree to other countries’ demands for low prices, and simultaneously fight against the ability for public and private payers in the United States to negotiate the best prices for patients. The inflated prices in the United States fuel global innovation while foreign health systems get a free ride.
This abuse of Americans’ generosity, who deserve low-cost pharmaceuticals on the same terms as other developed nations, must end. Americans will no longer be forced to pay almost three times more for the exact same medicines, often made in the exact same factories. As the largest purchaser of pharmaceuticals, Americans should get the best deal.
Sec. 2. Policy. Americans should not be forced to subsidize low-cost prescription drugs and biologics in other developed countries, and face overcharges for the same products in the United States. Americans must therefore have access to the most-favored-nation price for these products.
My Administration will take immediate steps to end global freeloading and, should drug manufacturers fail to offer American consumers the most-favored-nation lowest price, my Administration will take additional aggressive action.
Sec. 3. Addressing Foreign Nations Freeloading on American-Financed Innovation. The Secretary of Commerce and the United States Trade Representative shall take all necessary and appropriate action to ensure foreign countries are not engaged in any act, policy, or practice that may be unreasonable or discriminatory or that may impair United States national security and that has the effect of forcing American patients to pay for a disproportionate amount of global pharmaceutical research and development, including by suppressing the price of pharmaceutical products below fair market value in foreign countries.
Sec. 4. Enabling Direct-to-Consumer Sales to American Patients at the Most-Favored-Nation Price. To the extent consistent with law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) shall facilitate direct-to-consumer purchasing programs for pharmaceutical manufacturers that sell their products to American patients at the most-favored-nation price.
Sec. 5. Establishing Most-Favored-Nation Pricing. (a) Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary shall, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other relevant executive department and agency (agency) officials, communicate most-favored-nation price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to bring prices for American patients in line with comparably developed nations.
(b) If, following the action described in subsection (a) of this section, significant progress towards most-favored-nation pricing for American patients is not delivered, to the extent consistent with law:
(i) the Secretary shall propose a rulemaking plan to impose most-favored-nation pricing;
(ii) the Secretary shall consider certification to the Congress that importation under section 804(j) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) will pose no additional risk to the public’s health and safety and result in a significant reduction in the cost of prescription drugs to the American consumer; and if the Secretary so certifies, then the Commissioner of Food and Drugs shall take action under section 804(j)(2)(B) of the FDCA to describe circumstances under which waivers will be consistently granted to import prescription drugs on a case-by-case basis from developed nations with low-cost prescription drugs;
(iii) following the report issued under section 13 of Executive Order 14273 of April 15, 2025 (Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First), the Attorney General and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission shall, to the extent consistent with law, undertake enforcement action against any anti-competitive practices identified within such report, including through use of sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act and section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, as appropriate;
(iv) the Secretary of Commerce, and the heads of other relevant agencies as necessary, shall review and consider all necessary action regarding the export of pharmaceutical drugs or precursor material that may be fueling the global price discrimination;
(v) the Commissioner of Food and Drugs shall review and potentially modify or revoke approvals granted for drugs, for those drugs that maybe be unsafe, ineffective, or improperly marketed; and
(vi) the heads of agencies shall take all action available, in coordination with the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, to address global freeloading and price discrimination against American patients.
Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii.) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(d) The Department of Health and Human Services shall provide funding for publication of this order in the Federal Register.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
May 12, 2025.
This is an incredible man!
Single-handedly saving America!
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.
View the original article here.
Source link
TRUMP: “Starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries… and we’ll no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from Big Pharma.”
(@StellarNews007) May 12, 2025