President Donald Trump aims to lower prescription drug costs for all Americans with the aid of two carrots and a stick.
The positive and negative inducements are intended to get pharmaceutical manufacturers to equalize prices among developed nations, which would mean dramatically lowering prices offered to U.S. consumers while raising prices in other nations, particularly in developed ones.
The president’s Most Favored Nation Prescription Drug Pricing executive order, issued on May 12, asks, then tells, drugmakers to offer their lowest price on a slate of drugs in the United States.
Here’s the rationale for the plan, how it’s supposed to work, and why Trump thinks Big Pharma will go along....
