Posted on 07/30/2018 9:52:29 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
President Trump blasted the cost of medication in the US as part of his ongoing trade war, promoting German drug firms to make concessions and abandon price increases across America.
A spokesman for Darmstadt-based pharmaceutical and chemical group Merck said: “We are currently planning no price increases in the US for the rest of the year 2018.
They insisted their choice to cap medication prices in the US was one made “independently”.
Pharmaceutical giant Bayer has followed Merek’s lead by signing an agreement to not increase prices for any prescription drugs till the end of 2018.
According to German newspaper De Spiegel, US Health Minister Alex Azar had been informed “personally”.
In 2017, drug supplier Merck generated sales of an eye-watering 1.5 billion euros in its US arm, which amounted to a whopping 10 percent of the firm’s overall business.
Bayer also scooped less than a tenth of the Group's sales with prescriptions in the States, including huge sales recorded of the blood thinner Xarelto.
Mr Trump has repeatedly criticised the high cost of the US healthcare system, which is considered one of the world's most inefficient.
He has in the past condemned expensive prescriptions and patented drugs.
Recently, a cluster of other pharmaceutical companies such as Roche, Novartis and Pfizer had also waived price increases in the US.
Twitter fan Mr Trump tweeted his thanks to the firms to his 53.4million followers.
He said: “Thank you to Novartis for not increasing your prices on prescription drugs. Likewise to Pfizer. We are making a big push to actually reduce the prices, maybe substantially, on prescription drugs.”
However, analysts believe the fast and united action of the companies is a precautionary measure.
Ulrich Huwald, an analyst with the private bank M.M. Warburg, said: “They want to get out of the line of fire of Trump.
“Nobody has announced that they will never increase prices in the US.”
The expensive development of new medicines could become more unattractive for pharmaceutical companies if the price debate continues on.
By who...?
“The expensive development of new medicines could become more unattractive for pharmaceutical companies if the price debate continues on.”
How so? You can’t raise the price of a new medicine.
More winning.
What it really shows is that our medical system is already a crony-capitalist, centrally planned, statist system.
the fact that a President needs to jaw-bone the few large suppliers shows how rigged our health-care market it
Drug companies use their US profits to subsidze lower prices in other countries.
Trump is doing the right thing. The most important improvement needed for healthcare is to bring down costs, not universal coverage.
What it really shows is that our medical system is already a crony-capitalist, centrally planned, statist system.
...
I agree, and that explains why it’s so expensive.
And our drug prices so high partly because Americans are subsidizing Euroweenie and Canadian price controls.
Let’s see how long those price controls last when US consumers stop paying the freight.
Excellent!
I’ve have intimate knowledge of wholesale drug prices and know that Americans pay far higher prices for drugs than any other nation.
Case in point: The US retail price for a 10 day course of Levaquin antibiotic, a rather popular medication, is currently $90-180.
The wholesale price is $1.85.
You can buy the medicine worldwide for under $10 retail, but Americans pay that $90-$180 price.
You’ve got it. The US has been funding socialism in other countries for decades (not just by drug prices, either).
.
Too bad!
Drug costs should be high enough that nobody would use them. Then they would live longer.
Pharma is the world’s worst enemy.
Today’s daily DOSE of MAGA to make Lib heads explode:-)
I see that our Brit cousins are also having a problem with the lack of copy editors. The obvious correct word is "prompting" as in giving incentive to change.
Ah English, your two hard four sew many!
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