President Donald Trump sat down with members of the drug industry on Tuesday morning.
Trump, who has previously said pharmaceutical companies are “getting away with murder,” seemed to temper his statements Tuesday, according to media reports from the White House.
The CEOs of Novartis, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Celgene, and Amgen attended the meeting along with the head of the industry’s lobbying group, PhRMA. Here’s what went down:
- The president reiterated his interest in bringing drug prices down in the US, especially for Medicare and Medicaid. “The US drug companies have produced extraordinary results for our country, but the pricing has been astronomical for our country,” Trump said. “We have to do better.” Trump said medical products needed to be made in the US, and Trump called on the drugmakers to increase their US production. Trump also said he wanted other countries to pay “their fair share” for US-made drugs, saying he wanted to end “global freeloading.” He also made comments about the Food and Drug Administration, saying he intended to streamline the drug-approval process and that he intended to announce his nomination for commissioner soon. For their part, the drug-company executives asked for tax reform.
PhRMA’s president, Steve Ubl, said on Twitter that the meeting was “positive” and “productive,” especially when it came to growing the industry.
We believe @POTUS agenda on taxes, trade & regulations could create 350,000 American jobs over 10 years due to biopharma industry growth 2/3
— Stephen J. Ubl (@steveubl) January 31, 2017
The Nasdaq biotechnology index, which has fallen for most of January, rose about 1% in by mid-morning in New York. 