A panel of healthcare industry leaders warned Thursday that President Donald Trump’s most favored nations drug pricing policy risks choking off future medical innovation, even as they praised his broader vision of putting patients in control of their healthcare dollars.
“When you have MFN pricing, you give an incentive to the pharmaceutical industry that their investment is not going to pay off in the long run,” Market Institute President Charlie Sauer said at Daily Caller Live’s American Healthcare event at the Waldorf Astoria in Washington, D.C. “As an economist, it’s one of those hard things to look at because how do you look into the future and see what isn’t there?” (RELATED: Eric Hargan Says Kennedy’s Tech Team Won’t Be ‘Scared’ Of AI In Healthcare)
The panel, moderated by Defend Forgotten America founder Jenn Pellegrino, brought together Sauer, Tonix Pharmaceuticals CEO Dr. Seth Lederman, and AMC Healthcare CEO Brent Yessin to discuss drug pricing, rural hospital challenges, and regulatory reform.
🚨 @JennPellegrino moderates a conversation with Brent Yessin, @CharlesSauer, and @SethLederman on innovation in American healthcare and pharmaceuticals — from breakthroughs to the policy landscape shaping what comes next.
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) February 19, 2026
Daily Caller Live: American Healthcare | Presented by… pic.twitter.com/6rz7Q2FfIG
Lederman, whose company recently launched Tonmya — the first new FDA-approved fibromyalgia treatment in 15 years — pointed to managed care as a major obstacle preventing patients from accessing new therapies.
“It’s demoralizing to companies that have made large investments to get important new non-opiate treatments to market that then it’s hard for patients to receive them,” Lederman said.
He expressed optimism about FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s announcement that single-trial approvals would become the default pathway for drug approval, calling it a historic shift.
“With a stroke of a pen, today — my breath’s taken away,” Lederman said.
Yessin, a healthcare attorney with over 30 years representing major health systems, highlighted the rural hospital crisis, noting that roughly a thousand hospitals nationwide are over 70 years old and need replacement.
“It takes too long and it costs too much to replace them,” Yessin said. “I built a hospital in a factory in about six months. But it takes three years to build it because of the approval process.”
All three panelists called for reducing government red tape, with Yessin offering a blunt assessment of the regulatory landscape.
“They could stop making it worse — that would be a nice change,” he said.
Lederman emphasized the need to redomesticate pharmaceutical manufacturing, warning that dependence on foreign suppliers poses serious national security risks.
“It’s appalling that staple chemotherapy drugs and other things are not available because scarcities are created,” Lederman said. “We’ve become way too dependent on external manufacturers.”
