In other news, US Pharma is going to start hiking everyone else drug prices by xxx% to please Trump (and their Yachts.)
The Eunuch Union will 100% bend their toes instead of their knees and pay US fraud prices.
The Eunuch Union will 100% bend their toes instead of their knees and pay US fraud prices.
“When [we] do the math, shall we reduce the US price to France’s level or stop supplying France? We [will] stop supplying France,” Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla
US drugmakers threaten to withhold products from Europe over prices
US pharmaceutical companies are stepping up their campaign for higher drug prices in Europe, in some cases threatening to withhold new medicine if European lawmakers refuse.
Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla, the first pharmaceutical boss to announce a pricing agreement with US President Donald Trump last year, said the deal forced Pfizer to increase prices abroad.
“When [we] do the math, shall we reduce the US price to France’s level or stop supplying France? We [will] stop supplying France,” Bourla told reporters at the annual JPMorgan healthcare conference this week.
“So they will stay without new medicines. The system will force us not to be able to accept the lower prices.”
Other pharm executives said at the conference that they were quietly considering withholding or delaying drug launches in Europe.
Trump last year demanded drugmakers slash prices in the US or face tariffs. As of this month, 16 global drug companies — from AstraZeneca to Roche’s Genentech — have agreed to lower US drug prices. These voluntary agreements with the White House require companies to benchmark certain drugs in the US at prices in other developed countries ranging from Canada to Europe and Japan.
Trump on Friday hailed the deals as cudgels that forced Europe to increase prices. “So we go from a horrible situation on prescription drugs to the lowest price anywhere in the world,” he said.
With their deals with Trump finalised, pharmaceutical executives are raising pressure on Europe and other countries to increase prices and balance potential revenue losses in the US.
Last year, Bristol Myers Squibb threatened to halt the launchof its popular schizophrenia drug in the UK if it did not increase prices. In December, the UK promised to increase drug prices in a deal with the US.
In an interview with the FT this week, BMS’s chief commercialisation officer Adam Lenkowsky, said the UK deal did not go far enough.
“It is a positive step forward. I still think there is a long way to go.”
Daniel O’Day, chief executive of Gilead, said his company’s pricing deal with Trump “really gives us an opportunity to reset” pricing in the rest of the world.
Historically, European countries with government healthcare systems have had the power to strong-arm pharmaceutical companies into paying low prices. By contrast, the US has private and public healthcare providers that do not negotiate together for drug prices.
As the pharmaceutical companies called for higher prices, Germany’s largest public health insurance provider, Techniker Krankenkasse, said that drug prices were already too high.
“We in Germany are clearly paying too much,” said Jens Baas, chief executive of TK.
“The [German] legislature must act and urgently implement measures to reduce spending, especially in the area of patented drugs.”
Higher drug prices were unlikely to stimulate economies in Germany or Europe, Baas said. “They only increase the profit margins for pharmaceutical companies and burden those paying into the statutory health insurance system.”
TK declined to comment about the pharmaceutical executives’ statements on drug prices.
The tensions were likely to lead to delayed drug launches in Europe, analysts said.
Already, drugs launched in Europe about a year after they did in the US, said Will Humphrey, a vice-president at Capstone, a healthcare policy and consulting firm.
“All of this reminds me of the way Trump has handled Nato,” he said, referring to the US pressure campaign to force its allies to spend more on defence.
“These European nations do not have significant budget surpluses they can use to increase expenditures on drug pricing immediately. They are going to have to find a way to accommodate some of these priorities from the Trump administration or risk these drugmakers delaying their launches.”