President Donald Trump, in a long-anticipated speech May 11, proclaimed to target reducing drug prices in America.
But there is little in the speech or the administration’s plan that takes direct aim at industry, despite the president’s tough talk against pharmaceutical company pricing practices, says an expert on drug policy at Washington University in St. Louis.
“The administration’s blueprint contains dozens of proposals and over a hundred potential questions to explore in the future,” said Rachel Sachs, associate professor of law in the School of Law, who has written extensively on drug policy and pricing.
The speech, coupled with the release of a “blueprint” providing more detail on the subject, was touted by administration officials as “the most comprehensive plan to tackle prescription drug affordability.”
“But there are still a number of notable omissions,” Sachs said. “As several outlets have noted, the president’s previous call to have Medicare negotiate the price of prescription drugs is gone, although the blueprint does include the report on the relationship between Part B drugs and Part D drugs.”
In her post on the Health Affairs blog, Sachs summarizes several of the key proposals in the blueprint and explains what they might indicate about the administration’s strategy on this issue moving forward.
To read the full post, visit healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20180514.295639/full.
Sachs is available for media queries at rsachs@wustl.edu.