Vermont Business Magazine Vermont US Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Congressman Peter Welch issued the following statements Friday in response to President Donald Trump's address on drug prices.
Sanders: "Today the president made clear that he will not keep the promises he made during the campaign to lower the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs. Instead, he has become a supporter of the pharmaceutical industry's extraordinary greed.
"Instead of standing up to the power of the drug companies, who have spent nearly $4 billion on lobbying and campaign contributions since 1998, Trump has become a cheerleader for them. Unbelievably, instead of lowering drug prices in the United States, he wants to raise prices abroad – giving the drug companies even more profits. Unlike Trump, Congress needs to start listening to the American people and take real action to lower the price of prescription drugs. That means we need to pass legislation requiring Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices and allow for the reimportation of safe, low-cost prescription drugs from Canada and other countries – precisely what Trump promised during the campaign. I will continue to do everything I can to end the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lower the outrageous cost of prescription drugs."
Leahy: “The President has made some bold promises about reducing the price of prescription drugs, but unfortunately we’ve seen little in the way of action. Today’s announcement was more of the same – a flurry of soothing words and wheel spinning, and no willingness or courage to take on price gouging and anti-competitive behavior by the giant drug firms. Incredibly, he again passed up the opportunity to support our bipartisan CREATES Act, which truly would cut prescription drug costs. The Congressional Budget Office says the CREATES Act reforms would cut government costs by $3.8 billion, and it would save consumers many billions more. Our prescription drug pricing system is broken, and a hodgepodge of the regulatory changes the President has in mind will do little to bring down the costs of prescription medicines.
“The President should work with Congress to endorse and enact meaningful reforms, such as allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, which he has given lip service to in the past. And the best way to lower the price of prescription drugs is to truly, meaningfully increase competition. While the President is right to call out the anticompetitive behavior of some brand name companies that keeps generic competitors off the market, regulations alone will not solve this problem. Passing my CREATES Act would. Many efforts to reduce drug costs are partisan, but the CREATES Act enjoys equal support from Democrats and Republicans. A simple word of support today from the President would have added even more momentum. Once again, he missed – or ducked – that opportunity. An issue this important to the health and to the pocketbooks of every American family needs real solutions and not just more talk, more gear shifting and more handwringing.”
Welch: “Today, President Trump finally stepped up to the plate to deliver on his campaign promise to bring relief to consumers hit with skyrocketing prescription drug prices. Instead, he swung and he missed. Big Pharma wins. Consumers lose. In place of the bold action he repeatedly promised voters during his campaign, this plan nibbles around the edges of cutting drug prices and fixing a broken drug market. Had he followed through on his campaign promise to negotiate lower Medicare drug prices and import safe drugs from Canada, shock waves would have reverberated through Big Pharma. Instead, if you listen carefully, you can almost hear the champagne poppingin the corporate boardrooms of drug companies across the country.”
Welch is a senior member on the House Energy & Commerce Committee and co-chair of the House Affordable Prescription Drug Task Force. He is the lead House sponsor of legislation to mandate Medicare price negotiation and author oflegislation to allow for the importation of safe prescription drugs from Canada.