NEW YORK _ President Donald Trump told Democrats at the White House Wednesday that he wants to do something about U.S. drug prices, according to a lawmaker at the meeting, an area of potential bipartisan agreement as the two parties wrangle over Republicans' attempt to repeal Obamacare.
Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Peter Welch of Vermont presented Trump with a bill to have Medicare directly negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, and also talked about the price of EpiPen, Mylan NV's emergency allergy shot that became a focus for critics of high pharmaceutical prices. Both lawmakers are Democrats.
Trump was "enthusiastic" about the topic of drug pricing, Cummings told reporters after the meeting. "He was clearly aware of the problem and he made clear to us he wanted to do something about it."
"He knew there was a whole group of lobbyists and a lot of money being poured in to this," Cummings said of the drug industry. "It boiled down to, again, saving people's lives and saving money, and he was clear when you have situations where these companies are jacking up these prices it puts a lot of families in jeopardy."
U.S. drug prices have been a frequent target for Trump, and he's threatened to use the government's buying power to force prices down _ but so far has not unveiled any specifics about how. On Tuesday, Trump sent pharmaceutical stocks falling with a tweet where he promised to lower medicine costs and said he's working on a "new system where there will be competition in the drug industry."
