US President Donald Trump announced new agreements to reduce drug prices with several pharmaceutical companies, including Australia's CSL, India's “Sun Pharmaceutical“ and Belgium's UCB, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
The companies have committed to providing drugs to the American state health program “Medicaid“ under the terms of the so-called most favored nation, Trump announced during a meeting at the White House.
This is a “huge discount that is expected to significantly reduce the cost of healthcare“, the American president said.
However, it is not yet clear how many drugs are covered by the agreements and what the real amount of savings for the state and patients will be. The White House has not published details of the agreements.
The consumer protection organization “Public Citizen“ expressed skepticism about the announced measures. According to it, the new agreements divert attention from the failure of the administration's broader plan to bring drug prices in the United States closer to those in other developed countries. The organization also points out that under current legislation “Medicaid“ already receives significant discounts from drugmakers.
American consumers pay significantly more for prescription drugs than patients in most other developed economies.
Last year, the Trump administration reached similar agreements with 17 of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.
The new agreements were announced two months before the November midterm elections, which will determine the distribution of power in the US Congress.
Meanwhile, Israeli generic drugmaker Teva said it was continuing negotiations with the US government.