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 Trump, who campaigned on a platform to reduce drug prices for U.S.
consumers, has taken few concrete steps to lower medication costs
since taking office in 2017, and has so far largely relied on
personal talks with company executives and industry promises to
voluntarily roll back prices or limit price hikes.
At a White House event on hospital billing, the Republican president
criticized drug companies for what he said were unfair practices
that gave other countries better deals than the United States.
"We may allow states to buy drugs in other countries if we can buy
them for ... a substantially less price," Trump said. "The drug
companies have treated us very, very unfairly."
Most other developed nations directly or indirectly negotiate drug
pricing with companies, and in some cases may deny access to
medicines they deem too expensive, while pricing in the United
States is left to the free market and set by the drugmakers.
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It was not immediately clear how Trump's administration would move
to import medicines from abroad - an idea that has been floated for
years but never implemented given U.S. regulations to ensure safety
and efficacy and staunch opposition from the industry.
"The rules and regulations within our country have been absolutely
atrocious," Trump said.
"We will allow them, with certain permissions, to go to other
countries if they can buy them for 40, 50, 60 percent less," Trump
said. "It's pretty pathetic but that's the way it works."
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Tim Ahmann; Writing by Susan Heavey;
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot)
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