(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are scheduled to speak minutes after Trump signs an executive order on prescription drug prices in the United States.
The pair will hold a news conference at the White House at 9:30 a.m. EDT, per the president’s official schedule.
Trump said on social media Sunday he plans to sign an executive order at 9 a.m. EDT regarding drug prices, calling the order “one of the most consequential” in U.S. history. On Monday, Trump specified a price cut of at least 59%.
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Trump promised the order would operate under a “most favored nation” policy, allowing the U.S. to “pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World.”
“Prescription Drug and Pharmaceutical prices will be REDUCED, almost immediately, by 30% to 80%. They will rise throughout the World in order to equalize and, for the first time in many years, bring FAIRNESS TO AMERICA!” Trump said on social media.
His proposal would likely only impact certain drugs covered by Medicare and given in a health care office — think infusions that treat cancer, and other injectables, the Associated Press reported.
The immediate response from the pharmaceutical industry included backlash about Trump’s plan to “equalize” the prescription playing field.
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PhRMA president and CEO Stephen J. Ubl said the “Foreign First Pricing scheme is a bad deal for American patients,” according to NewsNation partner The Hill.
“Importing foreign prices will cut billions of dollars from Medicare, with no guarantee that it helps patients or improves their access to medicines. It jeopardizes the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America, making us more reliant on China for innovative medicines,” Ubl said.
Similar protests followed Trump’s 2020 attempt to do the same. Industry leaders argued his methods would give foreign governments an upper hand in deciding how much people pay in the U.S.
