Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) has introduced legislation demanding transparency on the various agreements between President Donald Trump and pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices, which the bill alleges remain obscure and ineffective.
Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) had previously written to drug manufacturers Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and numerous others about their deals with the Trump White House and the TrumpRx system. TrumpRx aims to sell medications at reduced prices equivalent to the lowest paid in other developed countries ("most favored nation"), which buyers pay for out of pocket.
More recently, a Senate Finance Committee report suggested that the agreements benefit manufacturers more than consumers, with tax breaks, regulatory relief, and exemptions from Trump's other attempts to lower drug prices.
As a result, Sen. Kelly's Drug Deal Disclosure Act requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to release all details of the agreements, and then have the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) compile a comprehensive analysis of the agreements and their effectiveness.
"Americans are paying the highest drug prices in the world while the Trump administration is cutting deals with Big Pharma," the Arizona Senator said in a press release. "Working families are already getting squeezed on gas and groceries because of this administration. If these deals are actually lowering costs for patients, show us. Americans deserve transparency."
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), the bill's original cosponsor, was harsher in his statement, saying, "There is no greater fraud when it comes to lower prescription drug prices than Donald J. Trump."
"After spending the last year parading Big Pharma CEOs through the Oval Office, all Trump has to show for it are a handful of sweetheart deals that shower goodies on these companies while Americans continue paying high prices for medicines they count on," Sen. Wyden continued. "If these deals are so great, why is the Trump administration afraid of showing them to the public? Because Trump is a giant fraud when it comes to lower drug prices."
