United States: Trump announces executive order to lower prescription drug prices

Donald Trump announced that he would sign an executive order at 9:00 a.m. (1:00 p.m. GMT) on Monday that he said would cut prescription drug prices in the United States by 30% to 80%. " They will increase around the world to compensate and, for the first time in many years, bring fairness to America! " the US president wrote in a message posted Sunday evening on his Truth Social network.

This decree will ensure that " the United States pays the same price as the nation that pays the lowest price in the world ," the Republican billionaire said, assuring that this reduction would apply " almost immediately ." Questioned by AFP, the White House did not provide further details on how this measure will work.

The White House president has long urged the pharmaceutical industry to lower drug prices, which are among the highest in the world and much more expensive than those in neighboring countries (Canada and Mexico) and Europe. According to a Rand Corporation study, the United States pays on average 2.5 times more for prescription drugs than France, for example. Donald Trump pledged to reduce this gap during his presidential campaign.

In mid-April, he had already signed a first executive order ordering his administration to work on a series of measures to lower drug prices. Among the actions listed: improving the negotiation process between public health insurance and pharmaceutical companies and allowing states to directly import drugs from lower-cost foreign countries.

Negotiations by Medicare, the public health insurance plan for over-65s, on the prices of certain drugs are long-term processes, and the reduced prices negotiated by former President Joe Biden—who also led an offensive in this area—will not take effect until 2026, for example. During his first term (2017-2021), Donald Trump took steps to reduce prices, with the stated goal of aligning them with the lowest prices in the world. But this plan had little effect in the face of opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.

Household dissatisfaction with inflation in 2022-23 has been cited as one of the reasons for Donald Trump's re-election. But his trade war policy, which in recent months has involved increasing tariffs on US imports, is raising fears of a further rise in prices.