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 Since he was elected, Trump, who has said he wants to repeal
Obamacare and reform Medicare and Medicaid, has not addressed the
sharp drug price increases that dominated the Presidential campaign.
Pharma companies are breathing a sigh of relief, but Trump could be
more critical of drugmakers and their price increases than the
industry expects, Allergan Inc Chief Executive Brent Saunders said
on Thursday.
Saunders, speaking at the annual Forbes Healthcare Summit in New
York, predicted Trump could be a "more vicious tweeter" against the
drug industry than his former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton had
been during the campaign.
Clinton's tweets committing to a crackdown on exorbitant drug price
increases weighed heavily on pharmaceutical shares since her first
tweet in September 2015. Pharma shares jumped in the days after
Trump's election as Clinton's proposed price controls fell off the
table.
Saunders said Americans are rightly angry about price increases, and
the industry needs to police itself or face government
repercussions.
"I worry today that the pharmaceutical industry has a very false
sense of security because of the Trump administration and a
Republican-controlled Congress," Saunders said.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals CEO Len Schleifer, speaking on a panel at
the Forbes conference, said the industry will be seen in a bad light
as long as it maintains the common practice of taking twice yearly,
often double-digit, price increases on widely-used medicines.
"We as an industry have used price increases to fill gaps in
innovation," he said.
"You can't say 'I set the price based on the value of the drug' and
then have these egregious price increases," Schleifer said, adding
that the value of a drug to society does not increase each year.
Pfizer Inc CEO Ian Read took exception to Schleifer's
characterization of the price hikes, arguing the cost of
prescription drugs as a percentage of overall healthcare spending
had not changed in two decades.
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In an overhauled U.S. healthcare plan under Trump, Read said he
would like to see financial risk shift from insurers to providers,
such as hospitals, with an emphasis on prevention and wellness.
"Give them the tools and the freedom and the incentive to manage
that risk," Read said.
Separately, Merck & Co CEO Ken Frazier said he thought one of
Trump's proposed healthcare reform policies - allowing the import of
cheaper drugs from other countries - will not work. The U.S. pays
more than any other country for medicines, and current U.S. law
forbids importation of drugs from other countries that charge far
less.
"I don't think it's going to be made possible," said Frazier, during
an interview on CNBC after an appearance at the conference. "Every
time we've tried to do that no FDA commissioner has ever been
willing to certify the safety of those drugs."
(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson, Bill Berkrot and Caroline Humer;
Editing by Marguerita Choy and Chris Reese)
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