Drugmakers complain clarity lacking from administration on lowering drug prices

Pharmaceutical executives say that the Trump administration has not provided enough details as to how it will achieve the lowered drug prices promised in an Executive Order issued in May.

That order implents a program known as “Most Favored Nation” that ties the prices of prescription medicines in the U.S. to the lowest prices found abroad.

At the Goldman Sachs Global Healthcare Conference this week, several execs lamented a lack of clarity from the administration as to how the program will be implemented.

On Monday, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) CEO Albert Bourla commented that talks with the administration are just scraping the surface and not “digging into the substance,” Reuters reported.

Merck (NYSE:MRK) CEO Robert Davis said that while there have discussions about how R&D costs should be shared between the U.S. and other countries, “how does that all translate into an actionable plan in the near term? There’s still a lot of dialog happening.”

The May 12 Executive Order states that within 30 days, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must “communicate most-favored-nation price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to bring prices for American patients in line with comparably developed nations.”

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