President Trump stated in a brand new interview that the pal who impressed a viral “fat shot” anecdote Trump advised whereas unveiling his sweeping pharmaceutical reforms Monday is glad to have his plight made public.
Throughout a White Home occasion, Trump riffed about an unnamed “highly neurotic, brilliant businessman” who had complained about getting his “fat shot” less expensive abroad than within the US.
“He’s very happy. He knows exactly who I was talking about,” Trump advised Fox Information’ Sean Hannity in an interview that aired Tuesday night.
“He called me. He said, ‘That was interesting.’ He said he was very concerned that I might use his name, I might slip. No, he doesn’t have to worry.”
The president famous that the story was “well-received” by the general public and claimed to have exaggerated his pal’s girth, telling Hannity that his buddy was “slightly overweight, to put it mildly.”
Whereas rolling out an government order meant to push down drug costs within the US, the president claimed his pal had known as him to say “I’m in London, and I just paid for this damn fat drug I take … He said, ‘I just paid $88 and in New York I pay $1,300. What the hell is going on?’ He said, ‘So I checked, and it’s the same box made in the same plant by the same company. It’s the identical pill that I buy in New York. And here I’m paying $88 in London, and New York, I’m paying $1,300.’”
Trump advised Hannity within the interview, which was recorded aboard Air Drive One Monday night, that he didn’t know which drug his pal bought however stated it was “maybe Ozempic.”
“And he called me. He said: ‘He,y a strange thing happened. I just bought a drug. Same company, same plant, same everything. Everything was the same. In one case, I paid in New York $1,300. And, in London, I’m paying $88,’” the president recalled.
“I said: ‘That’s right. The drug laws are very screwed up. And I’m doing something about it.’”
The president signed what he known as considered one of his “most important orders” ever to reform drug pricing Monday morning earlier than jetting off to the Center East on a three-country journey.
The coverage revives the “most favored nation” program of Trump’s first administration, through which federal well being authorities leverage rulemaking powers and authorities purchases of medicine to stress pharmaceutical firms to decrease costs according to what’s charged abroad.
The order calls on US Commerce Consultant Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to “take all appropriate action against unreasonable and discriminatory policies in foreign countries that suppress drug prices abroad.”
Some well being care consultants have accused different developed international locations of “freeloading” off the US by artificially pushing drug costs down, leading to US customers paying larger prices to compensate for analysis and growth prices.
On common, creating a brand new drug prices $1.3 billion when accounting for merchandise that by no means make it to the market, in response to a RAND Company research.
In different phrases, international international locations profit from decrease drug costs with out shouldering the results of much less drug growth.
“Even though the United States is home to only 4% of the world’s population, pharmaceutical companies make more than two-thirds of their profits in America,” Trump defined the dynamic Monday.
