Trump’s ‘earth-shattering’ new executive order that’s set to slash cost of drugs millions rely on

Prescription drugs taken by millions of people may soon be more affordable under a new executive order.

President Donald Trump is attempting to revitalize a policy from his first term that would compel drug companies to charge Americans the same prices for medications as they do in other countries.

Officials familiar with the plan said Trump will sign an executive order next week that will instruct federal health officials to adopt a ‘most favored nation’ pricing model for certain drugs covered by Medicare, the federal health insurance program for seniors.

The ‘most favored nation’ pricing model aims to lower costs of prescription medications by ensuring the US doesn’t pay more for certain drugs than the lowest price paid by other counties.  

Pharmaceutical companies typically market their most popular drugs to Canada and countries in Europe because most developed nations have single-payer or government-run healthcare systems that negotiate drug prices directly.

However, the US relies on a fragmented, privatized system where drug prices are set by manufacturers with little regulation – meaning companies can charge almost anything they want, with some drugs priced prohibitively high.

The order would mark a seismic shift in the way major companies do business, but could help lower drug prices to make them more affordable for Americans, as medication prices are notoriously high in the US, costing up to 10 times more in America than other countries.

But big Pharma relies on the private health system to make money, often saying that negotiating prices would stifle drug innovation and cut into their research budgets and one pharma executive called the proposal the biggest ‘existential threat to the industry and US biosciences innovation.’

Three people familiar with the matter told Politico the proposal is still being finalized and Trump has not approved any plans, but he did tease a ‘very big announcement’ that would be coming next week.

There is no confirmation on whether the ‘big announcement’ is related to the drug price plan but the sources said that was expected to also come early next week.

The president said: ‘We’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make — like as big as it gets. It will be one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years about a certain subject.’

Trump proposed a similar policy during his first term but it failed to gain support and faced intense pushback from the pharma industry.

In one last ditch effort, he tried again to push it through months before his first term ended but a judge stopped it. 

That plan would have had American drug prices tied to what comparable countries, including Canada, Germany and the UK, were paying for medications included in Medicare Part B. 

Drugs in this plan include those administered in healthcare facilities, such as chemotherapy.

At the time, it was estimated the order would have saved American taxpayers more than $85billion over seven years. 

Some drug prices have gotten so out of control that last year, the FDA granted permission to Florida to be the first state allowed to import less expensive medications from Canada. 

Among the medications that have surged in price are EpiPens, life-saving medication used to treat a deadly allergic reaction. They increased from a little less than $100 to more than $600 in a decade. 

And the price of insulin, vital for the management of diabetes, rose more than 1,000 percent in two decades, from $21 in 1999 to $332 in 2019. 

Additionally, a KFF report found the US paid $1,126 per capita on prescription medications in 2019, compared to $552 for a comparable country.

In the UK, it was the lowest at $285 per capita; Sweden saw a prescription medication spending of $378 per capita and Australia was third lowest at $434.

And more than 75 percent of American adults say the cost of drugs is unaffordable.