Trump said that the pharma industry was looking for payback due to his administration’s efforts to lower the costs of prescription drugs.
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President Donald Trump is once again attacking the pharmaceutical industry, now making claims that the drug companies are part of a shadow conspiracy aimed at taking down his administration.
During a Medicare speech in Florida on Thursday, Trump suggested without evidence that the pharmaceutical industry was behind the Democratic-led House’s impeachment process over a whistleblower complaint alleging that the president sought quid-pro-quo favors from the Ukrainian government to investigate his political rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Trump said that the pharma industry was looking for payback due to his administration’s efforts to lower the costs of prescription drugs.
Trump, who once suggested the pharmaceutical industry was “getting away with murder” due to its prices, said Thursday that he would not be surprised if the “hoax,” as he refers to the impeachment claims, “didn’t come a little bit from some of the people that we’re taking on.” According to Politico, Trump expressed the difficulty in taking on the pharmaceutical industry. He remarked that one might think it was “easy” to take on the drugmakers but added that “it’s not easy.”
“They’re very powerful, they spend a lot of money, spend I think more money than any other group in the world actually in terms of lobbying and lobbying abilities. And I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the nonsense that we all have to go through, but that I go through, wouldn’t be surprised if it was from some of these industries like pharmaceuticals that we take on,” Trump said, as reported by Politico.
The speech in Florida came a day after Trump rejected the idea of working with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on her plan to reduce prescription drug costs. Last month Pelosi unveiled her plan to lower the costs of prescription drugs covered by government programs that would tie prices to the International Pricing Index. That would bring the prices the government pays for drugs in line with prices paid by other countries. To ensure the drugmakers negotiate with the government, the Pelosi plan places stiff penalties on the companies of up to 65% of the gross sales of the drug in question.
While the Pelosi plan contains many elements championed by Trump, including his notion of a “favored nations clause,” the president blasted back on Twitter that Pelosi’s call to work together on lowering drug costs is “camouflage for trying to win an election through impeachment.”
A spokesperson for PhRMA, the drug industry’s lobbying group, said called the question about whether or not the industry was behind the impeachment proceedings “ridiculous,” CNBC reported.
Trump also took the opportunity during his speech on Thursday to reinforce support for importing lower-cost drugs from other countries into the United States, particularly Canada – something the industry has opposed. The government of Canada has also been opposed to a plan that would diminish its own supply of medications. When the Department of Health and Human Services announced its roadmap for importing drugs over the summer, Canadian officials balked at supporting any deal due to potential negative effects on that country’s drug supply and the costs its citizens currently pay.
