White House Press Release - Hhs Secretary Alex Azar, Fda Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, CMS Administrator Seema Verma: "Help is on the Way for Americans Facing High Drug Prices"

"President Trump recognizes that the current situation is unacceptable, and has made fixing high drug prices a top priority for his administration."

Help is on the way for Americans facing high drug prices

By Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma

Fox News

May 11, 2018

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For someone in desperate need of a cure, there is little difference between one that has not been discovered and one that cannot be afforded.

Americans should be able to reap the rewards of living in the country that has brought the world more new drugs than any other. President Trump recognizes that the current situation is unacceptable, and has made fixing high drug prices a top priority for his administration.

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The FDA recently unveiled a Drug Competition Action Plan that makes the approval process for generic drugs more efficient, encouraging lower prices through robust competition. Under President Trump, in 2017 the FDA approved more than 1,000 new generic drugs – a record number and 200 more than had ever before been approved in a single year.

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Last year, CMS made a change to improve Medicare that will save seniors an estimated $320 million on out-of-pocket drug spending in 2018 alone. CMS also updated a policy to expedite the substitution of generic drugs in Medicare Part D plans, giving seniors low-cost options more quickly than before.

President Trump's 2019 budget proposed a five-part plan to modernize Medicare Part D and lower costs for seniors. This plan includes free generic drugs for low-income seniors and a cap on seniors' out-of-pocket expenses for the first time.

But with American patients in need and the status quo unsustainable, President Trump has told us to go much, much further.

In response, HHS has been formulating the most ambitious reform of drug pricing in the history of our country. Our blueprint for reform, which will be unveiled in the coming weeks, will use four major strategies to address the problems we face.

First, HHS aims to increase competition in drug markets.

Second, we are going to give Medicare Part D plans better tools to negotiate discounts on behalf of our seniors – tools that private-sector health plans often already use.

Third, we will develop new incentives for drug manufacturers to lower list prices.

Fourth, we develop options to lower patients' out-of-pocket spending.

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President Trump has seen to it that we are not just going to talk about this problem – we are going to fix it, and soon.

So the president and his administration have one message for Americans burdened by our current system: Help is on the way.

Read the full op-ed here.