Donald Trump met with the heads of America’s biggest pharmaceutical companies at the White House on Tuesday, to urge executives to bring production back to the U.S. In return Trump, promised that he would lower regulations. This incentive is in addition to his plans to slash corporate tax rates for U.S. manufacturers.
The meeting was a lot like the photo op he held last week with top auto executives in the Oval Office. During what’s being called the “pharma meeting,” Trump lavished executives from corporations like Merck & Co. and Johnson and Johnson with sugary praises, stating that they’ve done a “terrific job over the years,” but insisted that drug prices must come down.
“So you have to get your companies back here. We have to make products … We have to get rid of a tremendous number of regulations,” Trump said. “I know you have some problems where you cannot even think about opening up new plants. You can’t get approval for the plant and then you can’t get approval to make the drugs.”
“We have no choice,” the President added, sitting at a table surrounded by aides, Vice President Mike Pence and eight pharmaceutical executives. “For Medicare, for Medicaid, we have to get prices way down, so that’s what we’re going to be talking about. We’re also going to be streamlining the process so that from your standpoint so that when you have a drug you can actually get it approved — if it works — instead of waiting for many, many years.”
Trump also noted that he’s been “disturbed” to see terminally ill patients not being treated with drugs that the Federal Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve.
Wow, it sounds like the president really cares about sick people, doesn’t it? Of course, an easier and much safer alternative would be to allow Americans to buy drugs from Canada, like Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) and others have advocated. That would then enable the government to safely study and explore different options for increasing U.S. drug production safely and responsibly over a period of time.
But what the hell? Why not just throw out all those pesky drug safety regulations and give the multi-billion dollar corporations bigger tax breaks?
Genius! What could possibly go wrong with this plan?
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
