A coalition of over 50 conservative leaders wrote to Trump to signal their opposition to his “Most Favored Nation” (MFN) drug pricing policy, which calls for drugmakers to voluntarily enter into agreements that they would sell their medicines in the U.S. at the lowest price they sell the product globally.
“In addition to doing nothing to address foreign freeloading, MFN would reduce access to new cures and reduce U.S. global competitiveness, ceding ground to China,” the leaders wrote.
“While supporters of this proposal correctly identify the unique problems facing the American health care system — namely, wealthy countries paying artificially lower prices for prescription drugs than the U.S. and the fact that this depresses innovation and inflates our costs — MFN would not solve these problems,” the letter continues. “In fact, it would exacerbate them.”
Trump has called for Congress to codify the policy into law. A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House — Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) — introduced one such bill to codify the order’s provisions last year.
Some critics of Trump’s MFN policy have argued that this strategy actually places upward pressure on prescription drug costs as drugmakers set their launch prices to account for the effective cap.
Signatories of the letter include Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform; Stephen Moore, co-founder of Unleash Prosperity Now and a former economic adviser to Trump; Tim Chapman, president of Advancing American Freedom; Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment; and Ryan Ellis, president of Center for a Free Economy; Alfredo Ortiz, CEO of the Job Creators Network.
Read more from The Hill’s Emily Brooks here.
