January 30, 2017
By Steve Zisson, BioSpace.com Senior Editor
The pharmaceutical industry can just cancel all of its expensive multi-million dollar public relations campaigns to bolster its poor image with the public and lawmakers. Save the money. It’s futile. They’ve lost their case on drug pricing.
Four out of five Americans want something, anything done to bring down the high costs of prescription drugs so a PR campaign won’t change their minds.
But the key battle on drug pricing was fought last week on, of all places, MSNBC’s Morning Joe show when Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings, as diehard a Democrat as you can find, spoke directly into the camera and addressed President Trump, who Cummings knew was watching. Trump is a regular watcher of the show and admittedly is an avid viewer—and loud critic—of many cable political shows.
“We talked the other day at the inaugural luncheon. And (Trump) made it clear that he wanted to meet me with regard to prescription drug prices. I know you’re watching so I’m looking forward to meeting with you,” Cummings told show hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
Soon after Cummings finished on the show, he received a call from President Trump who told him he had a lot of respect for the congressman and he wanted to work with him to bring down the high price of drugs for the American people.
This is how Washington is going to work from now on: an influential Congressman directly negotiating with the president on a cable TV political show. Although that seems unusual, it is similar to how Washington has worked best in the past when completely opposite political leaders find common ground on a particular issue. Cummings made it clear to the audience and to Trump that he is going to oppose Trump on so many bedrock Democratic issues but that he would work with him on issues important to his constituents. Cummings is a long time congressman who knows how the system works and how to work both within and outside of it.
Will ardent supporters of Cummings, some of who have vowed never to normalize or even speak the president’s name, now turn on Cummings? Unlikely. Because he may just get done what Democrats have wanted for a long time—to take down what they see as greedy Pharma and to bring down high prescription drug prices.
Trump has repeatedly said the drug companies are “getting away with murder” with the prices they charge for medication. Trump plans to change the way the Medicare bids on drugs in an effort to bring prices down—which he believes could save up to $300 billion annually. Currently, federal law does not allow the government to negotiate the price of drugs for Medicare.
“Pharma has a lot of lobbies, a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power. And there’s very little bidding on drugs. We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world and yet we don’t bid properly. And we’re going to start bidding and we’re going to save billions of dollars over a period of time,” Trump said.
Those pharmaceutical industry lobbyists can start spending their money now talking directly to Representative Cummings and the Trump Administration or go on cable news shows to reach them that way. They may want to start on Morning Joe.As long as President Trump’s administration doesn’t implode on a variety of other fronts—and it just might—and the president’s approval rating doesn’t plunge any further, the pharmaceutical industry’s fight to keep its drug pricing power is all but over.
