The President mentioned his passion for getting drug prices down, and I can tell you I’ve seen that firsthand. When I became Secretary in January 2018, the very first meeting we had in the Oval Office was to put together our plan for tackling drug prices. It was the No. 1 priority, the President said, for us—getting drug prices down.
Thank you, Mr. President—what an extremely exciting day for American healthcare.
On top of the news you just made, Pfizer will be filing an application for an emergency use authorization with FDA, for their COVID-19 vaccine that appears to be 95 percent effective. Within weeks, we could have a decision from FDA, and within 24 hours of that, we will have started distributing millions of doses of safe and effective vaccine to begin protecting our most vulnerable across America.
The President mentioned his passion for getting drug prices down, and I can tell you I’ve seen that firsthand. When I became Secretary in January 2018, the very first meeting we had in the Oval Office was to put together our plan for tackling drug prices. It was the No. 1 priority, the President said, for us—getting drug prices down.
In that meeting, we came up with the idea for most-favored-nation status, and for ensuring that the discount prices that big pharma was giving to middlemen would get passed on to America’s seniors at the pharmacy counter.
Almost two and a half years ago, in May [2018], the President laid out the most comprehensive vision for reforming drug pricing in American history.
The President’s blueprint was clear: We need to put American patients first, and our drug pricing system too often puts them last. The system had to change.
The blueprint called for tackling foreign freeriding, for bringing down high list prices, for reducing out-of-pocket costs, and for better negotiation by our government programs.
That’s what the President has delivered over the last two years already, and that’s what the President is delivering today with these new, historic reforms.
We’re ending a broken system of shadowy kickbacks that drove prices higher and higher every single year, and left so many patients shocked at the out-of-pocket costs they owe at the pharmacy.
We’re replacing that system with upfront discounts in Medicare delivered straight to the patient at the pharmacy counter.
We’re bringing negotiation to the way we pay for the most costly drugs in Medicare, fixing a system where the government just took the price that drug companies offered, paying about twice as much as comparable countries.
We’re ending a program that’s been used by drug companies to jack up prices on older drugs.
The President’s actions today boldly take on the big drug companies, take on the middlemen, and take on foreign countries freeriding off of Americans.
If you don’t believe how fiercely special interests have fought these efforts, you must not have watched any TV in Washington over the last couple of years. Special interests have run millions of dollars in ads against the President’s drug pricing initiatives. Mr. President, they underestimated me, and they sure as the devil certainly underestimated you.
About two years ago, just over in the Roosevelt Room, the President signed legislation to ban pharmacy gag clauses, alongside me and his drug pricing advisers.
That included my friend and colleague Dan Best, who passed away two years ago this month. He devoted his life to lowering drug costs for American patients, putting them at the center of our healthcare system, just as President Trump has done, and he was one of the key driving forces behind the rules that we are announcing today.
I wish Dan could have been here today, Mr. President, but today’s actions are a lasting legacy for him and for you.
The President’s historic actions will transform drug pricing forever and build the system that the American people deserve: a system that puts American patients first.
Thank you so much, Mr. President, for making today possible.
Read a fact sheet on the Administration’s drug pricing work here
