'Trump Just Caved to Big Pharma--Again': New Order Aims to Delay Drug Price Negotiations

[justaprogressive]

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order that aims to delay Medicare negotiations for a broad category of prescription drugs, handing the deep-pocketed pharmaceutical industry a major win as it lobbies aggressively against efforts to rein in its pricing power.

Trump's order, titled "Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First," instructs Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to work with Congress to "modify" the Medicare drug price negotiation program that was established under the Biden administration and has already yielded significant results despite pharma companies' best efforts to block it in court.

Specifically, Trump calls for a four-year extension of the period during which small-molecule prescription drugs are exempt from price negotiations with Medicare. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, small-molecule drugs—which are typically taken in pill form and represent 90% of medications currently in circulation—are not subject to the price negotiation process until at least nine years after their Food and Drug Administration approval date.

Steve Knievel, a drug policy advocate at Public Citizen, warned in a statement that by pushing back the negotiation date for many drugs, Trump's order could do the opposite of its stated goal, potentially reversing recent progress on an issue that has long plagued the United States.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-prescription-drug-prices

[edhopper]

1. How is this caving

When he was never going to let lower prices go through.
Caving implies he was opposed to the Drug Companies