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President Trump just announced another round of agreements with pharmaceutical companies under his “most-favored-nation” drug pricing initiative. The nine new deals bring the total number of participating manufacturers to 26, covering nearly 90% of the branded-drug market. The campaign targets a real problem. Many wealthy countries use price controls to pay far less for new medicines than Americans do.
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American families are paying nearly the price of a new car every year just for job-based family health insurance. Then come the deductibles, copayments, prescription drugs, and medical bills that too often seem impossible to understand. Healthcare is nearly one-fifth of the American economy. It affects affordability, wages, the federal budget, and ultimately whether Americans live healthier and longer lives. That makes healthcare one of the most important issues in the 2026 election. In the…
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For over a year, German officials have obstructed one of the Trump administration’s most important reform initiatives. And the president’s patience just ran out. The White House has repeatedly asked allied countries to roll back their price controls on prescription drugs. If those nations started paying market prices for medicines invented and manufactured in the United States, it would relieve the pressure on American patients, employers, and taxpayers—who are currently forced to fund a disproportionate…
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Medicare’s drug price controls could restrict Americans’ ability to access care and potentially drive up costs in the long term, according to analysts. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in August 2022, authorized the U.S. federal government to negotiate prices for certain high-cost prescription drugs covered by Medicare through the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. While congressional Democrats previously claimed the IRA would help bring down healthcare prices, analysts warned the Daily Caller News Foundation that such price controls might limit…
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Prescription drug prices do not become opaque by accident. They become opaque because the middlemen who manage drug benefits are allowed to hide many of their revenue streams from the employers, insurers, pharmacies, and patients who ultimately pay the bill. Congress has already recognized the problem. Federal pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reporting requirements are scheduled to reshape what PBMs must disclose, but many of the most important provisions will not take effect until 2028. That delay creates…
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Here’s one sign the affordability crisis isn’t what it used to be. You’ve probably seen the headlines. Big win here for Trump, but also for free market competition. The Trump Administration has aggressively promoted direct-to-consumer sales and included PBM reforms in the Big Beautiful Bill. Team Trump has attracted a half trillion dollars in new biopharmaceutical investment to the US. Intense market competition is driving down the price of medicines, such as popular weight loss…
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Some of medicine’s most consequential breakthroughs occur years after a treatment first reaches patients. Researchers discover that a medicine developed for one disease can also attack another—or that it can be reformulated and administered in a way that is safer, faster and far more convenient. These advances aren’t accidents. They require enormous investments in scientific research, clinical trials, manufacturing and regulatory approval. Developing a new use or improved formulation can take years of additional work and…
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Four years ago, when former President Joe Biden was hocking his Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — a misnomer if there ever was one — he and his fellow Democrats reassured the public that the law would reduce healthcare costs. Changes that would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, end drug rebates, and amend Medicare Part D benefits, they said, would produce $129 billion in taxpayer savings — a big chunk of the $290 billion of…