Trump tweets that he's working on a 'new system where there will be competition in the drug industry'
President Donald Trump has big plans for the way we price our drugs.
"I am working on a new system where there will be competition in the Drug Industry," Trump tweeted Tuesday. "Pricing for the American people will come way down!"
What that new system might look like isn't clear, but biotechnology stocks were down about 1% before markets opened Tuesday.
Trump has been speaking about drug prices since December, specifically addressing the rising costs of prescription drugs that consumers have been facing in the last few years. At a January news conference, Trump said drugmakers are "getting away with murder," and expressed an interest in negotiating drug prices, something the government isn't allowed to do for Medicare and Medicaid.
"We're the largest buyer of drugs in the world and yet we don't bid properly," he said at the time. "We're going to start bidding and we're going to save billions of dollars over a period of time."
Trump reiterated his interest in bringing down drug prices at the joint session of Congress on February 28, telling Congress he wants to "work to bring down the artificially high price of drugs ... immediately."
House Republicans unveiled their replacement health care bill on Monday, which had noticeably few mentions of prescription drugs. Beyond Trump's tweet, there haven't been any more details about how exactly the "new system" will drive competition and bring down drug prices.