Statement from Margarida Jorge, campaign director for Lower Drug Prices Now, on President Trump’s executive actions to lower prescription drug prices:

“This action is too little, too late from a president that’s had four years to lower the cost of prescription drugs. It’s just the latest example in a long list of PR stunts from an administration that’s done nothing to hold Big Pharma accountable for hiking prices anytime they want to boost profits, or to make medicines affordable for millions who need them. 

The ‘most-favored-nation’ policy would have been a major step forward in lowering drug prices, which is why Democrats included an even more robust version in HR 3. Not only did Trump refuse to take up HR 3, the Lower Drug Costs Act, after it passed the House last year, but his procrastination in taking any action means that this important rule will likely be more vulnerable to legal challenges and less likely to ever be implemented — just like many of his others.

At the end of the day, medicines will never be affordable for the patients who depend on them until lawmakers take away corporations’ monopoly control to set prices. Any serious proposal to lower drug prices requires coordinated action from Congress to re-write the rules that have rigged the system for decades, enabling the drug corporations to put profits before patients. That’s how we ensure that everyone in America can get the medicines they need to stay healthy and take care of their families, not with more lip service from a president that spent most of his term praising and enriching Big Pharma.”