The “war” between Trump and the pharmaceuticals is ongoing after the decree, which is a decrease in prices to align themselves with the levels of prices of other countries.

The Trump government’s mandate is for industries to determine within a month the new reduced medicines. If they do not comply, they will face actions or measures such as the introduction of drugs – although analysts and legal experts say that such measures would be difficult to implement.

What is Trump’s position on the prices of prescribed drugs?

Trump has criticized the pharmaceutical industry for years for drug prices in the United States. It has also criticized other rich nations for “unfair exploitation” of US pharmaceutical innovation.

During his first term in 2017, he accused the pharmaceutical industry of “sparing unpunished” for the high prices charged by the government for prescription drugs.

Trump’s proposed international reporting pricing program was blocked by a court in 2020.

During his election campaign for the 2024 presidential election, Trump said the Americans were paying too much drugs compared to other nations and pledged to take action.

On Monday, he said he wanted to “equate” prices with other countries by applying duties if companies do not make a “significant progress” to these goals within six months of the signing of the decree.

Prices of drugs in the US

US pays the most money for prescription drugs in the world, often almost three times more than other developed countries.

For example, the leading -in -sales -saved blood drug “Eliquis” by Bristol Myers Squibb Bmy.n and Pfizer PFE.N has a list price in the US $ 606 for a month of supply.

The previous government of Democratic President Joe Biden negotiated this price At $ 295 For Medicare, which comes into force in 2026, but The drug costs $ 114 in Sweden and just $ 20 in Japan.

What does Trump do?

Since taking over his duties in January, Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to end this inequality. On Sunday, he announced to Truth Social that he would sign an executive decree to pursue the pricing of the “most favored nation”.

Also known as international reference pricing, seeks to reduce the gap between drug prices in the US and the prices of other countries.

Monday’s decree was different from what the pharmaceutical companies expected. Sources from the pharmaceutical industry had reported to Reuters before signing the mandate on Monday that they expected that the pricing would be applied to Medicare patients. But the command seems to apply to all medicines.

Trump has also pressed the pharmaceutical companies to boost American production. His government is conducting a research on imports of medicinal products in an effort to impose duties on the grounds that dependence on foreign drug production threatens national safety.

What is the difference from previous prices reducing attempts?

The Law to reduce Biden’s inflation allows the government to negotiate the price of its most expensive medicines within Medicare.

Prices for the first 10 prescription drugs he negotiated were on average more than twice as much and in some cases five times as much as those agreed by pharmaceutical companies in four other high -income countries.

What do pharmaceutical companies say

The industry strongly opposes the prospect of lower drug prices in the United States, the largest pharmaceutical market in the world.

Two sources in the industry told Reuters last month that any such policy is more concerned about the industry than other possible government movements, such as tariffs on imported medicines.

America’s pharmaceutical research and manufacturers, known as Phrma, said: “To reduce costs for Americans, we must deal with the real reasons why US prices are higher: foreign countries do not pay their fair share and intermediaries increase prices for American patients“

“The most favored nation is a deeply wrong proposal that would destroy the nation’s small and medium -sized biotechnology companies butIn a statement, John Crowley, chief executive of BIO, the main US Commercial Group for biotechnology companies, said in a statement.

What are the challenges and why drugs in America are expensive

Experts warn that price difference from other countries is complicated, as many drugs sold in the US are not available abroad and some nations do not publish what they pay for medicines or take years to negotiate prices.

The US is not buying medicines directly for a national health system, such as countries such as England and Germany, but are based on the private sector to manage drug price negotiations for both government and private health programs.

Analysts have said that the implementation of the widespread command would be difficult.

The executive decree is also likely to face legal challenges, in particular to exceed the limits set by US law, including imports from abroad, have said legal experts.