US President Donald Trump's new proposals for drug pricing will cost the pharmaceutical industry $1 trillion over the next decade, Bloomberg reported, citing its sources.
The White House intends to use legislative initiatives, in particular, to tie the prices of imported drugs to lower prices in accordance with the Medicaid program, which helps pay for medical expenses for the poor, people with disabilities, children from low-income families and other socially vulnerable people, the publication says.
According to the publication, the idea presented by the US administration last week has “stunned the pharmaceutical industry and sparked a fierce lobbying campaign“. “International drug pricing plan“ will particularly affect innovative small and medium-sized biotechnology companies, the agency notes.
As previously reported, the largest pharmaceutical companies in Europe have called on the EU leadership to significantly increase the purchase and sale prices of drugs in order to support manufacturers against the threat of increased tariffs from the United States.
According to European manufacturers, the introduction of sectoral tariffs on drug imports to the United States will reduce the competitiveness of their products. At the same time, a significant part of the revenues of European pharmaceutical companies comes from the United States, where on average drug prices are two to three times higher than in other major developed countries. The tariffs will lead to a decrease in sales and revenues, and European manufacturers themselves will lose part of the American market and will cede their shares to US pharmaceutical giants.