Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Apart From A Few 'Sacrificial Lambs,' Pharma Emerges From Trump's Speech Largely Unscathed
The New York Times: Trump Promises Lower Drug Prices, But Drops Populist Solutions
President Trump vowed on Friday to “bring soaring drug prices back down to earth” by promoting competition among pharmaceutical companies, and he suggested that the government could require drugmakers to disclose prices in their ubiquitous television advertising. But he dropped the popular and populist proposals of his presidential campaign, opting not to have the federal government directly negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare. And he chose not to allow American consumers to import low-cost medicines from abroad. (Pear, 5/11)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Plan To Cut Drug Prices Leaves Industry Relieved
In a blueprint released simultaneously, the administration proposed more modest changes to the way Medicare pays for costly drugs. The plan includes more than 50 initiatives, though many of them involve potential future actions rather than immediate changes. “I don’t want to overpromise that somehow on Monday there’s a radical change,” Mr. Azar said. “This is the possible restructuring of a major sector of the economy. One doesn’t do that lightly.” (Radnofsky, Armour and Walker, 5/11)
The Washington Post: Trump Promises To ‘Derail The Gravy Train’ And Lower Drug Prices In ‘American Patients First’ Plan
In a major departure from his early and harsh criticism of pharmaceutical companies, Trump lashed into the entire supply chain that lies between drugmakers and patients, including health insurers, distributors and the little-known industry that negotiates drug prices. “We’re very much eliminating the middlemen. The middlemen became very, very rich, right?” Trump said. “Whoever those middlemen were — a lot of people never even figured it out — they’re rich. They won’t be so rich anymore.” Trump has criticized drug companies for having too much power and said Friday that the industry lobby “is making an absolute fortune at the expense of American consumers.” (Johnson, 5/11)
Bloomberg: Drug Industry Dodges Its Worst Fears In Trump’s Plan To Lower Prices
Nowhere in the proposal does the administration call for two policies the industry most feared: having the government directly negotiate prices and allowing the importation of prescription drugs from overseas. Trump had previously backed both of those ideas, promising to use the government’s buying power to get better deals. (Edney, Wasson and Langreth, 5/11)
Stat: Trump Administration's Drug Pricing Plan Sparse On Details
It’s unclear how the bevvy of proposals would work independently or together to actually save money for patients. The blueprint offers few specific details about how any of these ideas would be implemented, and barely commits the government to doing anything, often saying that the Department of Health and Human Services “may” take certain actions. (Swetlitz, Mershon and Facher, 5/11)
The New York Times: 6 Takeaways From Trump’s Plans To Try To Lower Drug Prices
As the health care world parsed the president’s newly released “blueprint” to lower drug prices, the overarching insight seemed to be this: The drug industry’s formidable lobbyists had won some key victories, even if they did not escape entirely unscathed. Many proposals were light on detail and will need action by Congress to become real. Yet Mr. Trump won some praise for having taken a stab at tackling such a complex and vitally important issue to many Americans. (Thomas, 5/11)
Stat: Trump Vowed To Rein In Pharma. His Speech Sent Drug Stocks Soaring
The two largest indices for biotech and pharmaceutical companies rose about 2 percent after Trump’s speech, as investors saw little to fear for drug makers. The stock prices of Pfizer, Merck, Gilead Sciences, and Amgen all spiked after Trump’s speech. Wall Street analysts said the speech posed few threats to the drug industry on the whole. “There may be some one-off sacrificial lambs in there, but for the most part the focus is on reducing inefficiencies in the current system,” said Brian Skorney, an analyst at Baird. “These, in large part, aren’t benefiting the sector as a whole, so any success at reducing them is probably net neutral.” (Feuerstein and Garde, 5/11)
The Associated Press: Trump’s Prescription To Reduce Drug Prices Takes Small Steps
“There are some things in this set of proposals that can move us in the direction of lower prices for some people,” said David Mitchell, founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs. “At the same time, it is not clear at all how they are going to lower list prices.” Drugmakers generally can charge as much as the market will bear because the U.S. government doesn’t regulate medicine prices, unlike most other developed countries. (Perrone and Colvin, 5/12)
NPR: Trump Speech Takes Broad Swipe At Prescription Drug Prices
Azar, in a briefing following the Rose Garden speech, acknowledged the plan is sweeping and would take years to implement. He said the administration will pursue those ideas it can get done. "This is a major restructuring of a huge portion of the U.S. economy. One doesn't do that lightly," he said. (Kodjak, 5/11)
Bloomberg: Health Investors Rush Back As Trump Drug Speech Fuels Rally
Shares of drugmakers and pharmacy benefit managers rallied after President Donald Trump’s short speech on his plans to address drug pricing lacked enough detail to alarm investors. Health-care stocks were among the top performers Friday with the S&P 500 Health Care Index closing 1.5 percent higher. The BI North America Health Care Supply Chain Index rebounded for a third session after stocks including Express Scripts Holding Co. and CVS Health Corp. briefly turned negative when Trump said “we’re very much eliminating the middlemen" in pharmaceuticals. And the Nasdaq Biotech Index had its best day in a month, climbing 2.7 percent. (Lipshultz, 5/11)
The Wall Street Journal: Reckoning For Drug Middlemen Is Postponed, Not Canceled
Healthcare investors who were on the edges of their seats on Friday afternoon were relieved. President Donald Trump’s much-anticipated remarks on Friday afternoon about lowering drug prices seemed like much ado about nothing. Share prices of potentially-affected “middlemen” such as pharmacy-benefit managers, and to a lesser extent health insurers, fell sharply but then rebounded within minutes in late trading. Investors shouldn’t relax, though. (Grant, 5/11)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump’s Plan To Lower Drug Prices: A Q&A
President Donald Trump Friday unveiled a new proposal to help lower drug prices. Here are some basic questions and answers. (Armour, 5/11)
Stat: Trump Decries ‘Middlemen,’ Largely Spares Pharma In Drug Pricing Speech
The president who stood in the Rose Garden Friday to deliver an address on lowering prescription drug prices wasn’t the same one who, less than 18 months ago, decried pharma companies for “getting away with murder.” Instead, standing next to the former president of Eli Lilly USA, a substantially less bombastic President Trump delivered a measured and speedy address — and unveiled a menu of potential policy changes — that hardly touch the industry he once denounced. (Mershon and Swetlitz, 5/11)
Kaiser Health News: Trump Vows (Again) To Lower Drug Prices But Skeptics Doubt Much Will Change
On a separate note, Trump told the audience that “right-to-try is happening,” a nod to congressional efforts to expand access to experimental medications for people with life-threatening conditions. (Tribble and Szabo, 5/11)
