Trump Sets 30-Day Deadline for Drug Firms to Lower Prices

President Donald Trump on Monday signed a sweeping executive order setting a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to electively lower the cost of prescription drugs in the US or face new limits down the road over what the government will pay.

- Associated Press

WASHINGTON:

The order calls on the health department, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to broker new price tags for drugs over the next month. If deals are not reached, Kennedy will be tasked with developing a new rule that ties the price the US pays for medications to lower prices paid by other countries. "We're going to equalize," Trump said during a Monday morning press conference. "We're all going to pay the same. We're going to pay what Europe pays."

"The pharmaceutical companies make most of their profits from America," Trump said. "That's not a good thing."

Trump played up the announcement over the weekend, boasting in one post that his plan could save "TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS."