President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday aimed at lowering the cost of certain prescription medications.
According to the Associated Press, a White House official said the order directs the Department of Health, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to negotiate reduced drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
Kennedy praised the move, calling it a long-overdue step that Congress had failed to take.
“Some estimates show the pharmaceutical industry spends three times more on lobbying than the next largest industry,” Kennedy said.
If negotiations fail, the administration plans to implement a new rule that would tie U.S. drug prices to the lower costs paid by other countries.
“The United States will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries,” President Trump said.
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While the executive order is broad and not limited to a specific class of medication, officials said Americans can expect the price of GLP-1 drugs, which are in high demand for weight loss, to be impacted.
“There will be a particular focus on drugs where there are the largest disparities and highest expenditures,” a White House official said. “It would be fair to expect that GLP-1s, given they fall into both categories, will be a focus. If their prices don’t come down, we’ll explore other policy levers to bring them down.”
The order is expected to face legal and political challenges from the pharmaceutical industry.
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