Trump says it will reduce drug prices by 500% to 1500%

US President Donald Trump now promises to get pharmaceutical companies to significantly reduce drug prices that charge Americans. And on Thursday, Trump sent letters To the head of the 17 major pharmaceutical companies pushing them to reduce the prices of prescription drugs that Americans face the levels that people pay in other countries. It is not yet clear whether such a tactic will work or what other strategies the Trump’s administration can apply except for a strictly deletion letter. But one thing is for sure. Trump has set a rather UMM ambitious goal: to reduce drug prices by 500% to 1500%.

Trump talked about lowering drug prices by 600%, 1000% and 1500%

Yes, you heard it right. At a July reception with members of Congress, Trump said: “This is something that no one else can do, we will reduce drug prices, not 30 or 40%that would be large, not 50 or 60, no. You can see him say that In a video posted on what was twitter:

He continued to say: “We will reduce drug prices by 1,000% by 1,100, 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 700, 600, not 30 or 40 or 50%, but numbers you have never dreamed of.” As you can see in the video below posted on x:

Well, there is one thing Trump was 100% right for: no one else can do that. It would be difficult to find someone to get the drug prices below more than 100%. This is perhaps something you have never dreamed of before, since speculative pharmaceutical companies usually try to make, you know, profit. Do two things.

Let’s do mathematics to understand what would look like a 1500%reduction in drug prices. Say that a drug bottle costs today $ 100. A 25% reduction would reduce this cost to $ 75. A 100% reduction would make the drug completely free. Any reduction in more than 100% would probably mean that the manufacturer will have to pay you. Thus, a 200% reduction in prices would result in a payday $ 100 per bottle for you. Saint, new way to make money, Batman! If Trump can get you a 1500%reduction in Hallelujah, time to replace youtube videos of “buying” videos as a way of making money.

Now, the chances that Trump’s administration will reduce a 1500% reduction in drug prices are probably less than 100%. The acquisition of pharmaceutical companies who enjoy very healthy profits for years for customers to pay to take their drugs would be quite trick. In addition, pharmaceutical companies should change their ads so that instead of telling you that you may have a condition that you do not realize that you have, ads could say something like “please do not use our medicines.

Trump sent letters to 17 pharmaceutical companies describing steps to reduce drug prices

This number 1500% might not have been in the letters sent by Trump on Thursday to pharmaceutical manufacturers such as AbbVie, Amgen, Astrazeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Emd Serono, Gentech, Gilead, GSK, Johnson & & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Novo, Pfizer, Pfizer and Sanofi. According to the White House, the letters listed steps to reduce the prices of prescription drugs in the US “to match the lowest value offered to other developed nations (known as the most favorable nation or MFN, price)” The steps are:

• “Calling manufacturers to provide MFN values to every Medicaid patient.
• Demanding manufacturers to state that no other developed countries offer better prices for new medicines than prices offered in the United States.
• Providing manufacturers an avenue to cut intermediaries and sell medicines directly to patients, provided they do so at a price not higher than the best price available to developed nations.
• Using commercial policy to support manufacturers in increasing prices internationally, provided that increased overseas revenue are immediately reinstated in reducing prices for American patients and taxpayers. “

The letters claimed that there was “global freeloading for American pharmaceutical innovation” and warned that if the steps described were not taken by pharmaceutical companies, the federal government “would develop every tool in our arsenal for the protection of US families.

Trump signed an executive order on drug prices in May

With this, pharmaceutical companies can now be about 1500% or so confident that Trump’s administration has them in its political visibility. Back on May 12, Trump signed an executive order claiming: “The United States has less than 5 % of the world population and yet the capital around three -quarters of world pharmaceutical profits.

This executive mandate stated that the Minister of Health and Human Services of the US, who is currently Robert F. Kennedy, younger, “will facilitate shopping programs directly to the consumer for pharmaceutical manufacturers who sell their products to American patients at the most favorable price”.

Americans pay higher drug prices than them in other countries

It is true that drug prices are usually significantly higher in the US than in other countries. For example, A June 2024 publication in Rand Health quarterly He described how drug prices in the US were on average almost three times higher than 33 other high -income countries. In the last two decades, annual increases in drug prices have easily overcome inflation. 2024 Kff showed a poll That the majority of Americans asked were concerned about the cost of prescription drugs that were too high.

Such concerns should not be so amazing. Many prescription drugs are not like cakes or fruits. In many cases, taking them is not an option. Your well -being and even your life could literally depend on being able to withstand different medicines.

And many pharmaceutical companies have shown no doubt about increasing the price of drugs as soon as possible. For example, even after receiving substantial funding from the US government, Pfizer and Moderna quickly rapidly increasing COVID-19 vaccines as soon as the government will not fully pay for them, as I described Tower in 2023.

It is also true that the debate on drug prices that are very high in the US is not new. However, none of the presidential administrations and conferences in the last two decades has been able to significantly change these trends. I have written about state level efforts to reduce drug prices, such as proposal 61 in California. But there was a lack of more complete efforts at federal level.

The challenge is that some trends in the current US system contribute to higher drug prices. For example, mergers and acquisitions over the years have led to fewer, larger and more dominant pharmaceutical companies with less competition. Existing costs and cost requirements make it more difficult for new pharmaceutical companies to emerge and provide more competition. Cuts in funding and supporting scientific research have made it more difficult to develop new products. Fewer new products leave patients with fewer alternatives and existing products with less competition. Consumers and various buyers did not generally have a negotiating power.

At the same time, it seems that more and more people have taken pieces of drug prices. This included various average people, such as pharmacy benefits and different managers. The marketing budgets of pharmaceutical companies continued to increase as well. In addition, investors expect that pharmaceutical companies will have an increasing profitability.

All this means that a simple simple intervention probably has a low percentage chance of reducing drug prices in a sustainable manner. Instead, a system approach may be needed, that is, multiple interventions at different parts of the system that work together in a coordinated manner. Otherwise, there may be unintentional consequences.

A sustainable reduction in drug prices would mean one in which mathematics would work for all patients. You do not want a condition where the prices of certain drugs are reduced while those of others are increasing. Also, you do not want a situation where drug prices are seemingly reduced, but consist of hidden costs that patients end up paying. In other words, if one claims that drug prices have been reduced by certain percentage, you want to make sure the percentage is real.