President Trump and top health officials heralded their drug pricing deal with Pfizer on Tuesday as a breakthrough that would save money for American patients struggling with prescription drug costs.
The reality is more complicated.
Under the deal, Pfizer agreed to charge Medicaid prices that are about the same as those it charges European countries. Trump officials also said they would push manufacturers to set prices for newly introduced drugs at similar levels in the United States and other rich countries. And they said they were planning to create a website, TrumpRx.gov, that would help people buy prescription drugs directly from manufacturers like Pfizer.
Much is still unknown about the administration’s Pfizer deal and the planned drug-buying website. Trump officials hinted that similar deals with other pharmaceutical manufacturers would follow.
But with the price equalization idea, Mr. Trump is tapping into widespread frustration that drug prices are too high in the United States. The Biden administration also took steps to try to lower drug costs for patients and the government, though it did not zero in as Mr. Trump has on the idea that drug prices are unfairly low in Europe.
The Trump administration’s changes, however, may have little if any impact for the vast majority of Americans, who fill their prescriptions for medications through health insurance.
Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University who studies drug pricing, said the administration’s announcement was “a really good way to say you’re doing something about drug prices, and not actually do anything to change the underlying profits of the industry.”
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The post How Trump’s Online Drugstore May Affect Your Drug Costs appeared first on New York Times.
