Thursday, June 22, 2017

Trump's Plan for Drug Pricing Executive Order Is a Big Pharma Wish List

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41039-trump-s-plan-for-drug-pricing-executive-order-is-a-big-pharma-wish-list
"Raise your hand if you believed Donald Trump's repeated promises to take on Big Pharma. What about the presidential boast that drug prices for the American people "will come way down?" Anyone? Sadly, skepticism about the true impact of Trump's populist posturing on drug pricing has proven to be well justified. As a worried nation focuses on the looming danger of the Senate vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the pharmaceutical industry has joined hands with the president who once said its corporate members are "getting away with murder." This week, the New York Times obtained a draft of a planned President Trump executive order on drug pricing. As Patients for Affordable Drugs founder and cancer patient David Mitchell told the Times, the text indicates that "Pharma has captured the process." The order, which appears likely to be rolled out after the dust settles on the Affordable Care Act repeal effort, was reportedly written largely by Trump budget staffer Joe Grogan, who was hired by the administration fresh from his role as a drug industry lobbyist."