Trump Promised An Announcement That Would Lower Drug Prices, But It Never Came

Trump promised he would make an announcement that would “substantially” lower drug prices. Trump said he would make this announcement by the end of last week, but it still hasn’t come. Trump has consistently broken his promises to lower prescription drug prices.

Two weeks ago, Trump promised to make an announcement by the end of last week that would bring drug prices down “really, really substantially.” It didn’t happen.

Bloomberg: “U.S. President Donald Trump said he would make an announcement next week that would bring down prescription drug prices ‘really, really substantially.’ Trump didn’t further explain the action he would take in comments to reporters at the beginning of a dinner Tuesday with corporate leaders at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.”

It’s not the first time that Trump has lied about lowering drug prices. In May, Trump promised that “in two weeks” drug companies would “announce voluntary massive drops in prices.” That didn’t happen either.

CNBC: “‘I think we’re going to have some of the big drug companies in two weeks, and they’re going to announce because of what we did, they’re going to announce voluntary massive drops in prices,’ Trump said. ‘So that’s great. That’s going to be a fantastic thing.’”

There has yet to be any significant prescription drug price cuts. In fact, prescription drug prices have continued to skyrocket.

Washington Post: “Two Weeks After Trump Unveiled Plan To Lower Drug Prices, Two Cancer Drugs Got A $1,000-Per-Month Price Hike”

Bloomberg: “Long-term, prices keep going up: 255 brand drugs had increases between Feb. 1 and July 15, according to the drug pricing website GoodRx. The most common increase in that window was for 9 to 10 percent, a threshold that some companies have promised not to exceed.”

 

Politico: “A Wells Fargo report found 104 price increases in June and the first two days of July, with an average jump of 31.5 percent and a median increase of 9.4 percent. That followed 48 increases in May.”