The Trump administration may propose a regulatory process to force drugmakers to cut U.S. prices to the lower levels in other wealthy countries, according to a regulatory notice that was briefly posted and then erased from a federal website.
The notice referred to a “proposed rule” and a “global benchmark for efficient drug pricing (GLOBE) model” under the Department of Health and Human Services. It was unclear from the notice exactly what the proposal would do or why it was deleted.
Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the health department, declined to answer questions, saying the administration does not comment on “potential future regulations.” Reuters earlier reported the notice Thursday.
But President Trump has long called for a model under which U.S. payers would get drug prices equal to the lowest price paid among peer countries. During his first term as president, he spoke about such an approach often. And his Medicare agency started a policy to test the idea in a small category of drugs in 2020, which was later paused by courts and withdrawn by the Biden administration.
If the administration moves forward on a plan to regulate drug prices in this way, it is likely to set off a new round of litigation by pharmaceutical companies, which have fiercely opposed such proposals because they could cut deeply into their profits.
“Importing foreign price controls would undermine American leadership, hurting patients and workers,” said Alex Schriver, a spokesman for the trade group PhRMA, in a statement. A better way to reduce the price differences, he said, would be to “get foreign countries to pay their fair share for innovative medicines.”
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The post Trump May Try to Force Drugmakers to Lower Some U.S. Prices appeared first on New York Times.
