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President Trump took a shot at Big Pharma on Thursday in another policy video aimed at adding to his Agenda47 platform headed into his reelection bid in 2024.
He hammered Big Pharma for enjoying the benefits of “gigantic foreign social welfare systems courtesy of YOU and the American people.”
Trump continued, “Crooked Joe Biden likes to pretend he stands up to Big Pharma, but in fact, I was the only president in modern times who ever took on Big Pharma, and I took it head on. Biden canceled my tough-on-pharma policies the moment he had a chance.”
Trump called Big Pharma’s price gouging on American prescription drugs “global freeloading,” due to the pharmaceutical industry’s “sweetheart deals” with foreign countries.
“For many years, Americans have been paying among the highest prices in the world for our prescription drugs, while other countries negotiate sweetheart deals off the backs of America, paying vastly lower prices for the very same drugs from the very same companies,” he explained.
Trump added, “On day one of my new term, I will sign an executive order to end this global freeloading on American consumers for once and for all.”
He said that the U.S. government would, under his direction, force Big Pharma to offer Americans the same prices that they offer to other nations.
The president clarified, “We’ve been ripped off by everybody for so many decades. We are tired of it. Not going to happen. They should have never rescinded my original executive order. It just shows you the power of Big Pharma.”
Trump was referring to his executive order (13948) from 2020, which was meant to lower drug prices in the U.S. by “linking them to those of other nations and expanding the scope” of a previous EO made in July 2020, Reuters previously reported.
The president concluded that his policy would strongarm Big Pharma to provide competitive pricing on prescription drugs for Americans.
He noted, “This will force Big Pharma to raise prices on foreign countries and reduce prices very substantially for American patients. It will deliver huge savings for seniors, and for all American patients.”
This policy pitch comes just weeks after Trump vowed to come after Big Pharma in an investigation of the “unexplained and alarming growth in the prevalence of chronic illnesses and health problems, especially in children.”