DRUGS/HHS/PHARMA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Vowing to put American patients first, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Monday blasted the pharmaceutical industry for not doing enough to bring down drug prices and announced what he called ‘historic action’: a proposal requiring drug manufacturers to include the list price of any drug paid for by Medicare or Medicaid in television ads…Azar’s comments come on the heels of President Donald Trump signing two pieces of legislation last week aimed at informing consumers about the lowest-cost drug option at the pharmacy. The latest proposal, Azar said, would ‘give you the right to know your drug’s price when you see it advertised on TV’…The skyrocketing price of drugs in America has become a major focus of the administration and Congress. A congressional report released in the spring found that the prices of the 20 most commonly prescribed brand-name drugs for seniors have risen nearly 10 times more than the annual rate of inflation over the past five years.”
–Wayne Drash, “Trump administration and Big Pharma square off over proposal to televise drug prices,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, October 15, 2018 6:25 am