EU health chief to probe effects of Trump’s drug pricing push

Amid falling drug launches in the EU, the European Commission will be assessing the impact of US President Donald Trump’s push to align drug pricing with the lowest levels among other developed nations — so-called most favored nation (MFN) pricing.

Last May, Trump passed an executive order pushing pharmaceutical companies to align prices with America’s main trading partners. The US is the world’s largest pharmaceutical market — which accounts for more than half of total demand for prescription drugs. To secure maximum revenue and higher margins, drugmakers can choose to push for higher prices or delay launches in Europe and other smaller markets.

And this might be already happening.

10 months after Trump’s executive order drug launches in EU markets fell by some 35% compared with the previous ​10 months, Reuters reported in March, based on an analysis by the GlobalData market research firm.

Now, health ministers want to know whether MFN is resulting in delayed launches, significantly higher prices — and, ultimately, reduced access to innovative medicines.

The EU executive will be looking at which pharmaceuticals might be affected by the US pricing policy, whether it will have an impact on new product launches and whether some drugmakers will withdraw from the European market as a result.

Countries want to get answers on “how does [the MFN] work and what general impact it has on EU markets,” health commissioner Olivér Várhelyi told journalists in the press briefing after the health ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

“This is the assignment that we take back home,” he said. And the time is of the essence. “We want to be quick, meaning I still want to do it before the summer,” the commissioner said.