Trump demands pharmaceutical industry lower prices or face retaliation
The US president published blunt letters on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, addressing Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, among others.
US President Donald Trump sent letters to 17 pharmaceutical companies on Thursday asking them to lower the prices of drugs sold in the United States or face retaliation, the White House announced. "He signed 17 letters to pharmaceutical companies," spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said at a press conference, before reading the letter addressed to Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks.
The president then published on his Truth Social platform the complete set of letters addressed to the heads of Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, among others. "If you refuse to act, we will deploy all means at our disposal to protect American families from abusive drug pricing practices," he wrote in these nearly identical letters. He gave them until September 29 to present "firm commitments" to this effect.
On May 12, Donald Trump announced a plan to significantly reduce drug prices in the United States by bringing them in line with those paid by other major economies, a promise he had failed to keep during his first term. "Prices for some prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals will drop almost immediately by 50 to 80 or 90 percent" for Americans, he proclaimed at the time.
He primarily intended to achieve these dramatic reductions through negotiations with pharmaceutical companies, which have previously opposed price cuts. Drug prices in the United States are among the highest in the world and exceed those in neighboring countries and Europe. According to a Rand Corporation study, Americans pay on average 2.5 times more for prescription drugs than the French, for example. Donald Trump pledged to narrow this gap during his presidential campaign.
On the New York Stock Exchange, the pharmaceutical sector was somewhat shaken by this announcement. Eli Lilly dropped 1.33%, Merck fell 3.59%, and Novo Nordisk deepened its losses (-4.65%). AstraZeneca (-3.26%) and Pfizer (-1.42%) were also shunned.
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