Drug prices must start coming down, and the White House will work with both Democrats and Republicans to make that happen, House and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday.
"What's happening is these drug companies keep increasing their list price so they can funnel more money to the middlemen, these pharmacy benefit managers as kickbacks to keep their drug in a preferred status on the drug formulary," Azar told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
"We've got to tackle these incentives or we're going to keep seeing increasing list prices."
The administration has been making some "historical" progress, said Azar, but the president has made clear that drug prices must start coming down.
"We will work with Democrats, we will work with Republicans to make that happen," said Azar.
Meanwhile, Trump has approved several items in hopes of bringing down prices, including approving new levels of generic drugs, saving $26 billion during the first two years of his term alone, said Azar.
Trump is also ending "foreign freeriding" from American investment in research and development, and has made it easier for pharmacists to inform patients about lower-cost alternatives for their medications.
"The president has been clear; prices need to be coming down, not up," said Azar. "The price increases that have happened, these are lower than happened the past years, and that's real savings."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.