Progressive Care Inc (RXMD)

[Jimmy Quick]

PBMs and their DIR FEES, about to come to an end.
.@realDonaldTrump signs executive orders aimed at lowering prescription drug costs.

“The middlemen are making a fortune and pharmacy benefit managers and people are just bilking Medicare patients with these high drug prices."

https://t.co/VQjiz26TnB

Trump also revived a 2019 rule that never came to fruition after pushback from pharmacy benefit managers, which negotiate drug prices with insurers. The proposed rule would require PBMs in Medicare Part D to pass discounts negotiated with insurers directly to the patients using those drugs, allowing Medicare beneficiaries to save money on medications.
Trump said Friday that his new executive order would cut out the “middlemen" and "middlewomen” and directed Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to “complete the rule-making process he commenced.”

Just as they did in 2019, pharmacy benefit managers are expected to retaliate. The PBM sector has planned an ad campaign to oppose any effort to eliminate rebates and play it as a political mistake that could raise drug costs for the elderly in swing states ahead of the November election, Politico reported.
“The middlemen are making a fortune, and pharmacy benefit managers and people are just bilking Medicare patients with these high drug prices while they pocket gigantic discounts, gigantic discounts,” he said.

The president will also implement a mandate that pharmaceutical companies sell prescription drugs in the U.S. at the same prices as in other countries, called the international drug-pricing index or the “favored nations clause.” Trump has long decried what he calls a "global freeloading" system in which drug companies are able to offer their products at a lower cost to other countries by charging the U.S. more. He first proposed the initiative in July 2019.
“It also means that the U.S. taxpayers are effectively subsidizing the socialist healthcare systems of foreign welfare states and many other countries,” Trump said. “We will end that abuse and restore the principles of free enterprise. ... This has to do with common sense and courage, to be honest.”

Trump said he’ll be meeting with executives from the pharmaceutical industry Tuesday to discuss ways to lower drug prices and out-of-pocket expenses. He added that if the talks are “successful,” the fourth executive order could be scrapped.