Trump sends letter to pharmaceutical CEO demanding drug price relief

President Donald Trump says Americans are too many on prescription drugs and demand change.

He sent 17 letters to the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. On Thursday, he said he would only accept commitments that will be instant relief from “a heavily inflated drug prices.”

The president hopes that other rich countries will help them take charge of research and development costs for branded drugs that will help lower prices for these drugs.

“The moment President Trump took office, the time for foreign countries was free and free from the United States came to an end.” White House spokesman Kush Sesai spoke exclusively to Fox Business.

“Americans are only 5% of the world’s population, but they fund 75% of the profits of pharmaceutical companies, as Americans are charged several times more for the exact same drugs as people in other wealthy countries.

“President Trump has pledged to lower drug prices for everyday Americans, and the administration is taking historic action to ensure that pharmaceutical companies pay a fair share rather than keeping the Americans ripped apart by the wealthy countries.”

HHS SEC ROBERT F Kennedy JR: American patients can pay more, others can pay less – it stops now

Talk to Fox business only in recent interviews, Astrazeneca CEO Pascal Soliot said he agreed to Trump.

“For many years, the US has covered the R&D costs in our industry, and of course, it’s very important because this drug saves lives,” Soliot said. “American patients are first benefiting before others in the world. The industry is producing a lot of good work, so America is profiting from this.

“But at some point, the costs of this R&D have to be shared quite a bit in rich countries. I’m talking about rich countries like Europe and Japan that have enough GDP to fund them. So I’m totally insisting on the idea that there’s probably a need for equalization of prices that should be adjusted between countries.”

Ticker	safety	last	change	change %
AZN	Astrazeneca plc	73.09	-3.50	-4.57%

The top drug giant treating diabetes and cancer among other illnesses has recently announced a $50 billion investment in the US over the next five years.

Astrazeneca invests $50 billion in the US

The Trump administration plans to use its authority under the US trade representative office and the Commerce Department to monitor the progress of re-adjusting drug prices. White House officials hope that this is a collaborative effort with pharmaceutical companies, likening it to reaching out to help other countries share the cost burden of their drugs.

These officials prefer to change the cost structure of prescription drugs through voluntary processes, but managers say they are happy to enforce it through a mandatory regulatory process.

Ticker	safety	last	change	change %
pfe	Pfizer Inc.	23.28	-0.55	-2.31%
lly	Eli Lilly & co.	739.77	-20.34	-2.68%
guild	Gilead Sciences Inc.	112.29	-2.47	-2.15%
amgn	Amgen Inc.	295.10	-6.27	-2.08%

Pfizer, Eli Lily, Merck, Gilead and Amgen are among the companies that received a letter from which the president lays out four regions where pharmaceutical companies can make changes to lower prices.

1. Extend pricing in the most preferred countries to Medicaid
2. Guaranteed the most preferred country pricing for newly fired drugs
3. Returning increased revenue from overseas from rebalancing to patients in the US
4. Eliminate intermediates to reduce costs to distribute directly from consumers or directly to business

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He said the president has set a deadline for the September 29th re-rick or his team is ready to support it.

Suzanne O’Halloran of Fox Business contributed to this report.