“I shudder to think what the president might have said if the Daraprim price hike had happened on his watch,” Mr. Hargan added. The price of Daraprim, which treats a life-threatening parasitic infection, was increased overnight to $750 a pill, from $13.50, in 2015. The move transformed the young C.E.O. of the company that acquired the drug, Martin Shkreli, into the new face of Wall Street greed. Mr. Hargan’s statements, like remarks and Twitter posts by Mr. Trump, suggested that drug prices were a big political issue for the administration. Members of the PhRMA board may create a work group to formulate a response to Mr. Trump’s demands. But they said they were hamstrung because, under federal antitrust law, a trade association cannot control or suggest prices of members, and lawyers advised them to avoid even discussing prices with competitors. Mr. Trump has suggested that the F.D.A. could require drug manufacturers to include the list prices of drugs in their ads — showing, for example, that cancer drugs like Keytruda and Opdivo can cost more than $13,000 a month. PhRMA rejected this idea. “Such a requirement,” it said, “could confuse patients since the list price often does not represent what they would actually be required to pay.” Moreover, it said, the undiscounted list price may be so high that its inclusion in advertisements “could deter patients from seeking care.” In recent days, Novartis, Merck and Roche have joined Pfizer in deferring price increases, and Merck announced with fanfare a 60 percent cut in the price of a hepatitis C drug which, in point of fact, recorded no sales in the United States in the first quarter of this year. But Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, told Fox Business: “Their voluntary actions are not what we’re counting on. We are driving swift, firm regulatory action, legislative action, that’s going to create every incentive to bring prices down.”
The Trump administration has issued a blunt warning to Big Pharma CEOs about soaring prescription drug prices. Eric D Hagan, the deputy secretary of health and human services, told the board of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), that the federal government favoured free-market solutions but added that ongoing aggressive price rises could invite other tactics. To ensure drugmakers got the message, federal officials also announced a series of measures and plans to coincide with the PhRMA meeting. Dr Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said he was putting together a working group to examine how to import prescription drugs from other countries if a sharp rise made a specific drug inaccessible to US consumers. Meanwhile the White House Office of Management and Budget said it was reviewing a proposal to restrict the payments of rebates blamed for high drug prices. The Trump administration revealed it would make more prescription medicines available over the counter and unveiled proposals to hasten the approval of more affordable versions of biotech drugs. President Donald Trump’s blueprint for lowering drugs prices was dismissed by Democrats as toothless, but pharmaceutical company CEOs were not so complacent. Federal officials “want a win, they want a victory,” said a person who attended the PhRMA meeting, adding the administration went “ballistic” when Pfizer rose prices a few weeks ago. Pfizer deferred the increases after the president criticised the firm. Robert A Bradway, CEO of Amgen and chairman of PhRMA, said there was a clear sense the government was serious and wanting to tackle the issue. Members of the PhRMA board could create a work group to put together a response to the president’s demands. However, they said they were hamstrung by federal antitrust law, which states that a trade association cannot control or suggest prices of members. Merck, Novartis and Roche recently joined Pfizer in deferring their price rises. But Alex Azar, the secretary of health and human services, said voluntary actions are not what the administration is relying on, adding it was driving “swift, firm regulatory action” to create every incentive to drop prices.