Last week, President Donald J. Trump sent letters to 17 of the leading pharmaceutical companies outlining steps they must take to lower prescription drug prices for Americans — including matching the lowest price offered in other developed nations. Fairness worldwide, what a great concept.

In a press release Monday, the White House asserted, “There is no reason American consumers should pay exorbitantly more than other countries for the same drug in the same packaging and manufactured in the same factory. That’s why President Trump warned the companies that if they ‘refuse to step up, we will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices.’”

The best evidence it’s working:

• CNBC: “President Donald Trump has been pressuring pharmaceutical companies to lower U.S. drug costs, and it may be starting to work — at least on AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca has proposed price cuts to certain drugs in the U.S., its CEO [Sir] Pascal Soriot told reporters.”
• Reuters: “British drugmaker GSK said on Wednesday it is in talks with the Trump administration about ways to lower U.S. drug costs, becoming the latest pharmaceutical company to acknowledge action under pressure from Washington to rein in prices.”

President Trump’s letter was covered nationwide:

• CNBC: Trump gives drugmakers 60 days to slash prescription drug prices
• The National News Desk: Trump demands lower prescription drug prices in letters to pharmaceutical companies
• Reuters: Trump pressures 17 pharma CEOs to cut US drug prices
• The Hill: Trump demands pharma companies slash drug prices in next 60 days
• Fox Business: Trump sends letters to 17 pharmaceutical companies on reducing drug prices
• The New York Times: Trump Demands That Drugmakers Lower Some of Their U.S. Prices by September
• Axios: Trump gives major drugmakers 60 days to cut U.S. prices
• Newsweek: Trump Sets Deadline on Drug Price Demand in Letter to Companies
• STAT News: Trump escalates demands that pharma companies lower their drug prices
• Fox Business: Trump leveling the global medicine playing field
• The Wall Street Journal: Trump Sends Letters to 17 Pharmaceutical Companies Asking Them to Lower Costs
• The Washington Examiner: Trump threatens Big Pharma heads who don’t lower drug prices with ‘every tool in our arsenal’

Was it covered by media in Oklahoma? We didn’t find it locally. The Eli Lilly and Company letter follows:

ENDING GLOBAL FREELOADING ON AMERICAN PHARMACEUTICAL INNOVATION:  President Trump is taking decisive action to rebalance a system that allows pharmaceutical manufacturers to offer low prices to other wealthy nations while charging Americans significantly higher prices. 

• According to recent data, the prices Americans pay for brand-name drugs are more than three times the price other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations pay, even after accounting for discounts manufacturers provide in the U.S.
• The United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet roughly 75% of global pharmaceutical profits come from American taxpayers.
• Drug manufacturers benefit from generous research subsidies and enormous healthcare spending by the U.S. Government. Instead of passing that benefit through to American consumers, drug manufacturers then discount their products abroad to gain access to foreign markets and subsidize those discounts through high prices charged in America. Americans are subsidizing drug-manufacturer profits and foreign health systems, both in development and once the drugs are sold.

President Trump said, “In case after case, our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory, effectively subsidizing socialism [abroad] with skyrocketing prices at home. So we would spend tremendous amounts of money in order to provide inexpensive drugs to another country. And when I say the price is different, you can see some examples where the price is beyond anything — four times, five times different.”