from AXIOS:
 Reproduced from Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker; Chart: Axios VisualsEven the Medicare-negotiated rates that the U.S. pays for some drugs is generally much higher than what other comparable countries pay for the same products, a new KFF analysis found.Why it matters: Trump seemingly dropped his proposal to drive better bargains for what the U.S. pays for drugs when he removed his “most favored nation” policy proposal from his campaign website.But that certainly doesn’t mean that the concept has gone away forever.The intrigue: Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks, who was at the Mar-a-Lago dinner with Trump and Kennedy, recently discussed the need to get other developed countries to pay more for drugs.”We have to raise developed countries, what they pay, and we can lower the U.S.,” Ricks said, according to Fierce Pharma. “I think that’s a policy argument we’ll hear about soon with the new administration.”Between the lines: The drug industry has long argued that the U.S. subsidizes drugs for the rest of the world, and forcibly lowering what the U.S. pays would hurt innovation.Getting other countries to pay more, even if the U.S. pays less, has an obvious appeal to pharma — and a pretty obvious appeal to Trump, who hates any suggestion that the U.S. is getting ripped off. |
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