Foreign government were accused of extracting "unreasonably low prices" from pharmaceutical firms by United States President Donald Trump.
Trump has directed is top negotiators that this issue be made a focus in trade talks.
"It is time to end the global freeloading once and for all," he said.
During his presidential campaign, Trump had promised that he would reduce the very high costs of prescription drugs and now he is under pressure to deliver on that promise.
He claimed that other countries "extort unreasonably low prices" from drug-makers - in part because of a regimen of price controls and that forced American’s to cough up more money to "subsidise the enormous costs of research and development".
"That is unacceptable," Trump said.
But changing foreign pricing will not impact Americans because it is not a major influence on US costs according to experts.
Firms already possess enough incentives to innovate and they set prices to extort the maximum profits, said Paul Ginsburg, a professor of health policy at USC and the director of the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy.
"The notion that if other countries pay more for drugs that US consumers will pay less, that's just not true," said
"If they are able to get other countries to pay more, I don't believe it will have any effect on prices in the United States," he added. "It will only raise drug company profits."
Following the comments from the president in a speech., share prices of U.S> drug companies saw an increase.
For v, lowering of high cost of prescription drugs is a priority, repeated polls have indicated.
According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, compared to an average per capital cost of between $466 to $939 in 10 other high-income countries, including the UK, Australia, Canada and Japan in 2016, the figure in the US was $1,443.
This is the reason hat the health spending in the U.S. is nearly double that of other countries as most of it is comprised of the high costs of medicines.
During his presidential election campaign in 2016, Trump had said for government health programmes, such as Medicare, the prices of drugs should be negotiated by the government. He was also vocal in supporting demands for allowing people to purchase medicines from low cost countries like Canada.
The president's blueprint offered "little more than window dressing", said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat from New York.
"The idea that asking Germany to charge their citizens more for drugs will help Americans is a cop-out and the height of absurdity that nobody believes," he said.
Drug manufacturers set prices in the U.S. which are then negotiated with stakeholders in the distribution chain such as insurers, suppliers and hospitals by granting of rebates and discounts.
"The middlemen" in that system is desired to be eliminated by Trump.
Putting an end to regulations that help pharma companies from disclosing some information about costs and the disclosure of out-of-pocket costs were among the measures proposed by the White House blueprint.
Identification of costs of drugs in their advertisements is also being considered by him, Trump said.
(Source:www.bbc.com)
Trump has directed is top negotiators that this issue be made a focus in trade talks.
"It is time to end the global freeloading once and for all," he said.
During his presidential campaign, Trump had promised that he would reduce the very high costs of prescription drugs and now he is under pressure to deliver on that promise.
He claimed that other countries "extort unreasonably low prices" from drug-makers - in part because of a regimen of price controls and that forced American’s to cough up more money to "subsidise the enormous costs of research and development".
"That is unacceptable," Trump said.
But changing foreign pricing will not impact Americans because it is not a major influence on US costs according to experts.
Firms already possess enough incentives to innovate and they set prices to extort the maximum profits, said Paul Ginsburg, a professor of health policy at USC and the director of the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy.
"The notion that if other countries pay more for drugs that US consumers will pay less, that's just not true," said
"If they are able to get other countries to pay more, I don't believe it will have any effect on prices in the United States," he added. "It will only raise drug company profits."
Following the comments from the president in a speech., share prices of U.S> drug companies saw an increase.
For v, lowering of high cost of prescription drugs is a priority, repeated polls have indicated.
According to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, compared to an average per capital cost of between $466 to $939 in 10 other high-income countries, including the UK, Australia, Canada and Japan in 2016, the figure in the US was $1,443.
This is the reason hat the health spending in the U.S. is nearly double that of other countries as most of it is comprised of the high costs of medicines.
During his presidential election campaign in 2016, Trump had said for government health programmes, such as Medicare, the prices of drugs should be negotiated by the government. He was also vocal in supporting demands for allowing people to purchase medicines from low cost countries like Canada.
The president's blueprint offered "little more than window dressing", said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat from New York.
"The idea that asking Germany to charge their citizens more for drugs will help Americans is a cop-out and the height of absurdity that nobody believes," he said.
Drug manufacturers set prices in the U.S. which are then negotiated with stakeholders in the distribution chain such as insurers, suppliers and hospitals by granting of rebates and discounts.
"The middlemen" in that system is desired to be eliminated by Trump.
Putting an end to regulations that help pharma companies from disclosing some information about costs and the disclosure of out-of-pocket costs were among the measures proposed by the White House blueprint.
Identification of costs of drugs in their advertisements is also being considered by him, Trump said.
(Source:www.bbc.com)