Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
The Trump campaign's reversal on its major drug pricing proposal leaves it without a clear signature plan to lower the cost of prescription medicines.
Why it matters: Drug prices were a big focus for Trump, and the retreat from the "most favored nation" plan marks a major policy shift that could bring relief to the pharmaceutical industry.
What they're saying: "There is no push to renew the most favored nations drug pricing policy," a Trump campaign spokesperson told Axios on Friday. "President Trump has promised to lower drug costs for Americans, like he did in his first term."
- The spokesperson did not elaborate on why the policy was dropped, a shift that was first reported by Inside Health Policy.
- The Trump campaign's Agenda47 website had previously featured a video in which Trump pledged to sign an executive order on day one of his presidency to "end global freeloading" and have Medicare pay the lowest price that other countries pay for drugs.
- Now, it appears the video has been taken down, though the transcript is still up at one link.
Between the lines: It's a bit of a mystery as to how this major shift came about.
- Trump himself had spoken multiple times about how he felt the U.S. was getting ripped off for prescription drugs.
- Still, there was always a question about whether Trump's rhetoric would ever turn into policy.
- The Trump administration proposed a rule to this effect, but just tried to finalize it in the waning days of his presidency, only to see it stall in the courts.
- Drug manufacturers strongly opposed the rule, so the pivot is a victory for the industry.
The big picture: It marks an even further retreat for Trump, who during the 2016 campaign endorsed Medicare drug price negotiation, saying he would "negotiate like crazy."
- But during his presidency, he did not support that policy, instead pointing to most-favored nation, which would have capped Medicare payments for drugs at the lowest available price in a set of countries with "comparable" per-capita GDPs.
- Trump has not made clear exactly how he would handle the IRA drug price negotiations that Democrats passed, but this latest pivot could be good news for congressional Republicans looking to repeal that provision.
