Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle offered up legislation to codify President Trump’s executive order intended to reduce the costs of prescription drugs.
Mr. Trump on Monday revived his “Most Favored Nation” policy, which he promised would cut pharmaceutical drug prices by 30% to 80%.
The policy tags the price of a drug in the U.S. to the lowest rate charged for the same medicine in another part of the world.
Mr. Trump signed an executive order that established that the U.S. will pay prescription drug prices based on their lowest costs in another country.
He implemented the plan through an executive order for the health secretary to establish a mechanism for Americans to buy drugs directly from manufacturers at the most-favored-nation price, bypassing middlemen.
But Sen. Bernard Sanders said Mr. Trump’s executive order risks being thrown out by the court, and only legislation that prevents pharmaceutical companies from profiting off the backs of the American people is the way to go.
“I agree with President Trump: It is an outrage that the American people pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. It is beyond unacceptable that we pay, in some cases, ten times more for the same exact prescription drugs than people in other major countries,” said Mr. Sanders, Vermont independent and the Democrats’ top member on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
“But let’s be clear: The problem is not that the price of prescription drugs is too low in Europe and Canada,” he said. “The problem is that the extraordinarily greedy pharmaceutical industry made over $100 billion in profits last year by ripping off the American people.”
The Vermont lawmaker said Mr. Trump knows his executive order will be “thrown out by the courts.”
Mr. Sanders said that if the president is “serious about making real change rather than just issuing a press release, he will support legislation.”
“I will soon be introducing [a bill] to make sure we pay no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries,” Mr. Sanders said. “If Republicans and Democrats come together on this legislation, we can get it passed in a few weeks.”
A GOP senator also offered bipartisan legislation to support Mr. Trump’s prescription drug cost executive order.
“Great move by President Trump,” said Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri on X. “Now Congress needs to make it PERMANENT by passing my bill to stop Big Pharma price gouging.”
Last week, Mr. Hawley co-authored a bill with Sen. Peter Welch, Vermont Democrat, titled the Fair Prescription Drug Prices for Americans Act.
The legislation would prohibit pharmaceutical companies from selling drugs in the U.S. at higher prices than the international average.
The bill would impose stiff civil monetary penalties on pharmaceutical companies that violate this rule.
The penalty would equal 10 times the difference between the U.S. list price and the average price of the drug sold in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
Penalties would be calculated and charged for each unit of drug or biological product sold at an inflated price.
“For too long, Americans have subsidized prescription drug costs for foreigners while paying outrageous prices for their own medications,” Mr. Hawley said. “President Trump previously advanced major reforms to ensure that American patients pay the same prices as consumers abroad.
Mr. Welch said, “In his first term, President Trump pursued a most-favored-nation policy to level the playing field for American patients. I’m glad to partner with Senator Hawley on this bipartisan bill that offers the administration a template to work with Congress to make that goal a reality.”
