Pharma Industry Execs React to President Trump’s 60-Day MFN Deadline

Pharma industry execs argue that the President's MFN order would make the US a less innovation-friendly market.

Members of the pharma industry are reacting to President Trump’s latest order to the industry.

Yesterday, President Trump publicly published letters to 17 major pharmaceutical companies that he believes have not properly responded to his most-favored-nation (MFN) executive order. Earlier this year, the President issued an executive order stating that pharma companies must treat the US as an MFN and provide US citizens with drug prices as low as or lower than the lowest price around the world.

In the President’s letters, he stated that the companies had not taken the necessary steps and had instead shifted the blame and suggested policy changes that would “result in billions of dollars in handouts to the industry.” The letters continued to provide specific steps the President wants these companies to address in order to meet the requirements of his original order.

In a statement sent to Pharmaceutical Executive, Incubate’s executive director John Stanford responded to the President and argued against his demands.

"While other nations have adopted drug pricing policies that discourage innovation, the United States has long taken a different path––one that rewards long-term investment in high-risk, high-impact research and development,” Stanford said. “That commitment has made the U.S. the world leader in scientific progress, developing more new drugs than the rest of the world combined and giving Americans access to breakthrough therapies earlier and in greater numbers than anywhere else.”

The statement continues, “A Most Favored Nation policy to peg U.S. drug prices to those set by foreign governments will undermine the investment ecosystem that drives America's world-leading medical research and cede our leadership to China. Companies developing the next generation of therapies in fields like oncology, rare disease, and immunotherapy rely on predictable incentives to bring new treatments to patients. MFN-style mandates introduce uncertainty and risk chilling investment in the development of tomorrow's cures. We share the administration's goal of lowering drug costs for Americans. But reforms must preserve the conditions that power America's leadership in drug discovery, accelerate medical progress, and save lives."

The following companies received letters from the President:

• AbbVie
• Boehringer Ingelheim
• Bristol Myers Squibb
• Novartis
• Gilead Sciences
• EMD Serono
• Pfizer
• Novo Nordisk
• Astra Zeneca
• Amgen
• Genentech
• Johnson & Johnson
• GSK
• Merck
• Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
• Sanofi
• Eli Lilly and Company

The letters explain that each of these companies have 60 days to take action on the order. If not, the President says that the government will do whatever it can to enforce the order.

In the President’s original MFN order, he wrote, “For many years the World has wondered why Prescription Drugs and Pharmaceuticals in the United States of America were so much higher in price than they were in any other nation, sometimes being to ten times more expensive than the same drug, manufactured in the exact same laboratory or plant, by the same company?”

Aside from the MFN order, President Trump is also in the process of negotiating tariffs with countries all over the world. It’s unclear how the order will interact with the tariffs, which would likely raise the cost of importing pharmaceutical drugs, thus making it more difficult for pharma companies to lower their prices in the US.