LOC10:19
07:19 GMT
WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (KUNA) -- U.S. President Donald Trump has announced the launch of a government website (Trump Rx) that offers consumers discounts on prescription drugs, a move billed as a key pillar of his efforts to lower drug prices in the United States.
During the launch event at the White House on Thursday evening, Trump said "starting tonight, dozens of the most commonly used prescription drugs will be available at dramatic discounts .. this launch represents the largest reduction in prescription drug prices in history by many, many times".
He added, "Americans have long been paying the highest drug prices anywhere in the world, while other countries often paid pennies on the dollar for the exact same drugs we were essentially subsidizing the entire world and subsidizing by hundreds of billions of dollars every year."
Trump noted that the US is just 4% of the world's population and consumes only 13 percent of all prescription drugs. Yet pharmaceutical companies have been making 75 percent from these drugs, adding "the American people were effectively subsidizing the cost of drugs for the entire world, and it's not going to happen any longer. We ended it."
"Under the most favored nation agreements my administration has negotiated, the United States will pay the lowest price paid by any other country. So we're taking the lowest price paid for drugs we will pay equal to whatever the lowest price anywhere in the world", he said.
The president stated that it's a tremendous reduction, and that drug prices in other nations will go up by doing this, adding that "They had to agree. And the reason they agreed is, I use tariffs."
The President said that under the agreements made by his administration, prices have fallen by up to 300, 400, 500, even 600 percent and even more, highlighting that the dozens of commonly used drugs available today are just the beginning. 16 of the 17 largest pharmaceutical companies have signed agreements.
This policy, which is a key pillar of the great health care plan, is going to bring co pays plummeting down and save Americans billions and billions of dollars making health care much more affordable, like at a level that you couldn't believe, remarked Trump.
H continued, "Under these agreements, the top pharmaceutical companies will also be investing hundreds of billions of dollars to bring drug manufacturing back to America .. which means jobs, economic growth. Factory, openings, and far greater national security".
He stressed that the tariffs had a really a big factor in it, adding "Automobiles and other things. If they don't want to make them in the United States, have to pay very big penalties in the form of tariffs. And what that means is they're all coming here. Every industry is coming here."
"We're taking in more than USD 18 trillion into the United States because of tariffs of companies. The only way they can avoid them is to build here. They avoid paying the tariff," stated Trump.
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