Donald Trump announces plan to drastically reduce drug prices in the United States

And he assured: "Europe will have to pay a little more, the rest of the world will have to pay a little more, and America will pay a lot less." These dramatic reductions he intends to obtain mainly through negotiations with pharmaceutical groups, which have opposed price cuts in the past. "Big Pharma will either voluntarily comply with this principle, or (we will use) the power of the federal government to ensure that we pay the same price as other countries," the president declared, while defending the industry.

"I'm not blaming pharmaceutical companies. I'm blaming countries," he said, accusing the European Union of being "brutal" in negotiating prices in its territory, thus forcing companies to raise them in the United States, he said.

"The problem isn't that prescription drug prices are too low in Europe and Canada […], it's that the terribly greedy pharmaceutical industry made over $100 billion in profits last year by defrauding the American people," left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders retorted in a statement.

According to a study by the Rand Corporation, Americans pay on average 2.5 times more for prescription drugs than the French, for example. Donald Trump pledged to reduce this gap during his presidential campaign.

Laboratories argue that their research and development work must be funded to enable the discovery of new treatments. The federal government retorts that it cannot shoulder this burden alone. The government "is right to use trade negotiations to force foreign governments to pay their fair share," Stephen Ubl, head of the powerful Pharmaceutical Industries and Manufacturing Association (PhRMA), said in a statement.

However, some of the measures being considered, such as importing cheaper drugs, could threaten these companies' investments in the United States as well as the country's sovereignty, making it "more dependent" on drugs produced elsewhere, including in China, he warned. This would be "a bad deal for American patients and workers," he insisted. The American laboratory Eli Lilli insisted on the need to act on the commissions taken by intermediaries - insurers and hospitals, for example, in the United States. "More than 60% of the cost of a drug goes to intermediaries. We look forward to working with the administration to fix this broken system," said a spokesperson.

The plan includes a mechanism to align US prices with lower prices in other developed countries. Donald Trump attempted to do the same thing during his first term but encountered opposition from the pharmaceutical industry. In mid-April, Donald Trump signed a first executive order ordering his administration to work on a series of measures to lower drug prices. However, there is no guarantee that these measures will be implemented, at least not immediately.

Negotiations by Medicare, the public health insurance program for people over 65, over the prices of certain drugs, are protracted. The reduced prices negotiated by former President Joe Biden, who also led an offensive on this issue, will not apply until 2026, for example.