FDA Offers to Trade Faster Drug Reviews for Lower US Prices
The FDA typically has avoided inserting itself into the murky world of drug pricing in the US.
Photographer: Shana Novak/Stone RF/Getty Images
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said his agency may fast-track new drugs from pharmaceutical companies that “equalize” the cost of their medicines between the US and other countries, an unusual proposition from the regulator that’s long avoided contentious pricing debates.
The comments, made in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s Wall Street Week with David Westin, offer insight into an idea floated to help the administration achieve one of President Donald Trump’s main health-care goals: ensuring foreign countries aren’t getting a better deal on drugs. Trump demanded that Americans get similar or lower prices as consumers in other countries in an executive order signed in May.