Trump plan on drug prices likely to be friendly to drug industry: report

President Trump’s plan to lower prescription drug prices, a key issue during his 2016 election campaign, may end up being friendly to drug companies, according to a new report. 

Politico reports that the Trump administration is struggling to make progress on an executive order related to drug pricing and that the order will not allow the government to negotiate drug prices or allow importing of cheaper drugs from other countries, both solutions Trump proposed during his campaign.

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Analysts who follow politics for investment banks see the struggles as signs that a broad shift in government policy towards drug pricing is not coming, which would be good for the drug industry.

“If anything, the limited scope of the discussions should be good news for the pharmaceutical and bio industries and investors because nothing like sweeping action to curb drug prices is under discussion and the industry probably will not view the subjects of the Trump discussions … negatively,” analyst Terry Haines told Politico.

Administration sources said this week that the executive order was originally expected to have a negative impact on the pharmaceutical industry, but the policies now under consideration would not do so. 

One such policy being considered would direct federal agencies to pursue value-based purchasing contracts for drugs, while another policy that is under discussion would instruct agencies to pursue trade policies that would strengthen the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies.

Trump was a fervent critic of the pharmaceutical industry during his campaign, once saying the industry was “getting away with murder.”