Trump Announces Executive Order to Lower Drug Prices: "Up to 80% Reduction Expected"

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced plans to sign an executive order aimed at lowering the relatively high cost of prescription drugs in the United States to match prices in other countries.

AP Yonhap News

According to AP Yonhap News and other sources on the 11th (local time), President Trump stated on his social media platform, Truth Social, "At 9 a.m. on the 12th, I will sign one of the most significant executive orders in U.S. history," adding, "We will establish a most-favored-nation policy so that the United States pays the same prices as the country with the lowest drug costs in the world." He continued, "The prices of prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals will drop almost immediately by 30% to 80%," emphasizing, "Our country will finally receive fair treatment, and our people's medical expenses will decrease to levels previously unimaginable."

AP Yonhap News pointed out that the executive order is likely to apply to Medicare, the health insurance program for 70 million seniors, and will probably cover only certain drugs, such as cancer treatments and other injectable medications. However, the scale of federal spending that could be reduced is expected to be significant.

The pharmaceutical industry is expected to strongly oppose the executive order. Previously, during his first term in 2020, President Trump signed an executive order focused on lowering drug prices, but the policy was ultimately not implemented due to opposition from the pharmaceutical industry. At that time, the industry argued that President Trump's executive order would give foreign governments an 'advantage' in determining the value of pharmaceuticals in the United States, and that forcing price reductions would hurt profits and ultimately impact innovation and the development of new drugs.

For a long time, Americans have expressed strong dissatisfaction with drug prices being higher than those in other advanced countries. Both the Republican and Democratic parties have shown interest in addressing the issue of high drug prices, but large-scale reforms have not been achieved due to lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry.

On the 5th, President Trump announced that tariffs on pharmaceuticals would be "announced within the next two weeks." He also commented that, "Compared to other countries around the world, we are being treated extremely unfairly and exploited" regarding drug prices.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.