Donald Trump has demanded UK pharmaceutical giants lower prices for America and suggested charging others to make up the difference.
He said if they didn’t, the US would deploy ‘every tool in our arsenal’ to protect families from ‘continued abusive drug prices’, sparking fears the NHS will end up paying more.
Mr Trump suggested he would use tariffs to push through higher prices if countries resisted.
In May Mr Trump signed an executive order demanding drugmakers cut US medicine prices to match those abroad.
Yesterday in a letter to 17 pharma companies he said he expected them to deliver on measures by September 29.
He asked them to apply ‘most favoured nation’ pricing to Medicaid, the US health programme for people on low incomes.
Donald Trump (pictured) has demanded UK pharmaceutical giants lower prices for America and suggested charging others to make up the difference
Trump with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz on May 12
Mr Trump also asked drugmakers to offer new medicines at the same price in the US as in other developed countries.
He said: ‘Our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill… subsidizing socialism aboard [abroad].’
British pharma companies AstraZeneca and GSK were among the recipients. Others included Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Sanofi.
The UK Government said it would ‘continue to work closely with the US to get the best deal for our pharma industry and deliver mutual benefits for both our countries’.
