At a "Make America Healthy Again" Commission Event on Thursday, President Trump spoke about drug prices.
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00:00So I think I'll close by just saying that something
00:06happened a week ago that was very, very important,
00:09profound, but very important in so many ways.
00:13For years, I noticed that other countries paid much
00:17less for drugs and pharmaceuticals than we did.
00:21But I don't mean 2 percent less or 10 percent, which
00:24would be good, but I don't mean 20 or 25 or 30 percent.
00:28I mean, sometimes we paid 10 times more, 12 times more,
00:3213 times more than other countries, where people from
00:36our country would be seen going into Mexico and seen
00:39going into other countries, leaving on trips and bringing
00:44their drugs home because they'd get in London, they'd be
00:47able to buy a drug for one-tenth the price of what it
00:50cost in New York City.
00:51And I watched this, and I watched it during my term,
00:54and I didn't like it.
00:56I didn't like it.
00:57And it's a very complex system.
00:58But, you know, we're smart also, maybe much smarter
01:01than they are.
01:02And at some point, we had to figure out, and I heard it
01:05was the middleman.
01:06Nobody told me who the middleman was.
01:08Nobody knew who the middleman was.
01:09Nobody ever heard.
01:10All I heard is the middleman.
01:11I said, they've got to be the richest people in the
01:14world, whoever they are.
01:15We don't even know if there is a middleman.
01:17All I know is that the drugs were 10 times higher and
01:20sometimes more than that.
01:23And I really got into it over the last year, and I
01:25figured the whole system out.
01:27And for various and sundry reasons, the United States
01:33of America was being screwed.
01:36And we were being taken advantage of and being
01:39laughed at for years and years.
01:41And I said, it's not going to happen anymore.
01:43And I brought a great gentleman, the head of Eli
01:45Lilly, in, who's great.
01:49He really is.
01:49He's great.
01:50He's done a fantastic job.
01:51And others also, of the companies.
01:54And I have it out with them.
01:56I had debates with them, actually.
01:57And pretty much, it was a debate that was impossible
02:01to lose.
02:02You had to be a real bad debater to lose that debate
02:05because they couldn't justify it.
02:07They tried to say, well, you know, we pay for
02:09research and development, and the United States has
02:11agreed to pay for 100 percent.
02:13I said, why?
02:14Why are we paying?
02:15And, by the way, that wasn't even the number,
02:16because it's still way too high.
02:18You took all the research and development.
02:20But you have other countries that are a lot more
02:24vicious than us in terms of their representatives.
02:28And they'd set a price for a drug, and they'd say, tell
02:30the United States to pay for the rest.
02:32We were subsidizing the whole world.
02:34And I said, we're not going to do that anymore.
02:36We've been a laughing stock for so many years.
02:38The last four years, we've been a laughing stock.
02:40I said it.
02:40We were a laughing stock, and now we're the most
02:42respected and we're the hottest country in the world.
02:45We're going to remain that way.
02:46We're going to do that with drug costs, too.
02:48And so I said, I'm going to do something that's a very
02:51unpopular thing to do with a small number of people,
02:55mainly the people that own the drug companies and
02:57others.
02:58And I'm not even blaming them.
03:00They were able to get away with it.
03:01But it was really other nations that took advantage
03:04of us because the drug companies were under their
03:07thumb.
03:08And they would say, this is what I'm going to pay.
03:12And the European Union was right at the top of the
03:15list, let me tell you.
03:17We're going to pay $20 for this, and we're not going
03:19to pay any more.
03:20And America would pay $240 for the same thing that
03:24they're paying $20.
03:25They said, tell America to pay for the rest.
03:27So for years, they went along aimlessly, and they did it.
03:31And I started making changes.
03:33And I'll never forget the end of my first term, which
03:37was very successful.
03:38We had the best stock market ever.
03:39We had the best economy ever of any president.
03:43We went up 88 percent in the stock market, as an
03:46example, and I think 116 percent in one of the other
03:50indices.
03:51And we had — we're doing well, but I never — this
03:54whole thing with the drug costs always bothered me.
03:56And I started really studying it, and it's very
03:58complicated stuff.
04:00And I said, you know what?
04:02We are paying so much more.
04:04And I demanded favored nations.
04:07We're the biggest buyer.
04:08We're the best buyer.
04:09We're the most solid buyer.
04:10We're the one that paid for all of the research and
04:13development.
04:14And I said, we're going to do something that's
04:16earth-shattering.
04:16So, at the end of my first term, I was so proud,
04:21because it's the first time in 28 years that any
04:24president reduced drug prices during the course of
04:28four years.
04:30And you know what that number was?
04:31One-fourth of one percent.
04:34But it was down one-fourth thing of it, a quarter of
04:37one percent — very little.
04:39Essentially, they remained the same.
04:41But I wanted to get it down, and I was so proud.
04:44I thought I was the greatest guy in the world.
04:46I took it down one-quarter of a percent.
04:49And I had news conferences.
04:50I was bragging.
04:51I'm the only one that did it 28 years.
04:53And then I said, that's not very much, because we
04:56were still paying so much more.
04:57And I decided I've got to break the system.
05:01And it's the most powerful lobby in the world, the
05:03drug company, the most powerful they are, the
05:06most powerful — and I'm not saying bad, good.
05:08I'm not saying anything, but they have tremendous
05:10power over the Senate, over the House, over the
05:14governors, over everybody.
05:16And they spend more money, billions and billions of
05:20dollars.
05:20And I said, I don't care.
05:21I've got to do what — I have to do what's right.
05:24And I declare to favored nations, most favored
05:27nations, where the United States, from now on, is
05:31going to pay the exact same price as the lowest price
05:35anywhere in the world.
05:36In other words, if you take —
05:38The President Biden has to do what's right.
05:43Right?
05:45In other words, if you take the country that's paying,
05:49and let's say in the — a certain part of — you
05:51know, there may be some country out there that pays a
05:54little bit less for very good reasons, because of the
05:56fact — a thing called poverty or whatever.
05:58But we take the lowest country, say, European Union
06:04countries as a whole.
06:05That would be fine.
06:06Or take individual countries within the European
06:09Union, or take various countries that nobody's even
06:14heard about.
06:14We pay the lowest.
06:16And what that's going to mean — and I'd like to put
06:19somebody to police it, because it should start
06:21immediately.
06:21It shouldn't start in two years, three years, five
06:24years, they'll say, yes, it kicks in.
06:25They always say, kicks in, Marty.
06:26It kicks in, sir, in four years.
06:29You know, in the four years, they get it changed.
06:33It should mean — so remember I told you I was
06:35happy with one quarter of one percent?
06:37It could mean anywhere from 70 percent to 89 percent
06:41reduction in drugs and pharmaceuticals.
06:44That's a little different, right?
06:49And I've actually had some congressmen call me and
06:51they say, sir, look, can we talk about this?
06:54I said, no.
06:55They wanted to talk because, you know, there's
06:58tremendous power against them.
07:00And I understand that.
07:01And every one of them was covered.
07:03Senators were.
07:05I see Roger smiling.
07:06And Roger probably was, too.
07:08But you know what?
07:08He wants to do the right thing, right?
07:10He wants to do the right thing.
07:11And we're doing the right thing.
07:12We're taking advantage of — and forget the drug company.
07:15We're taking advantage of by other countries that
07:18insisted with the drug companies that they were
07:20going to pay X dollars — and we're not paying any
07:23more, and you're not doing business here.
07:25And they were nasty about it.
07:26These people were almost sort of afraid of them.
07:30And we are going to now get a reduction in drug
07:34costs of up to 89 percent in some cases.
07:37But 50 percent would be a low — a bad number.
07:40So think of that — 50 percent versus one quarter of
07:43one percent.
07:45Think of that — 85, 89, 91, 72 percent.
07:50It's going to be massive numbers.
07:53It's going to be incredible for Medicaid,
07:55incredible for all forms of health care.
07:58Medicare is going to be — it's going to have a
08:00huge impact — so big that nobody can calculate it.
08:03I mean, this thing could drop by 25, 30 percent.
08:06The drugs are a very big part of it, right?
08:09So a very big part.
08:10So it'll affect everything.
08:12It'll affect your whole life.
08:14The amount of money you're going to be saving is
08:16going to be incalculable.
08:17Nobody can believe I had the courage to do it.
08:21I don't think it's courage.
08:22I think it would have been courage not to do it.
08:24I tell you what, not to do it would have taken far
08:27more courage, because I was tired of it.
08:30And I was listening to these guys, and they are — you
08:32know, they make a lot of money every year, millions and
08:34millions of dollars a year.
08:36And I agree, because at the beginning, because of the
08:38complexity, you'd walk out of a room, you'd hear them
08:40talking, and, you know, they almost convince you that
08:44it's a great system, it's a wonderful system, even
08:46though we were paying 10 times more.
08:48That's why they make 30 million dollars a year,
08:50because they were good, but not any longer.
08:53And one of them just threw up his hands after I was just
08:57pounding on him.
08:57And he said, I can't do it anymore.
09:00It's the hardest thing I have to do is trying to
09:02justify this damn thing.
09:04One of the biggest companies, I just can't do it
09:07anymore, you're right.
09:09And as soon as he said that, that was, like, incredible,
09:12because I understood exactly he couldn't do it.
09:14He said it's the hardest thing he had to do is trying to
09:16justify why we're paying $200 for something and
09:20somebody else is paying $12.
09:23That is a neighboring country.
09:25Take Canada.
09:26I mean, people go up to Canada to shop because their
09:29prices are so much less, and it's not going to
09:31happen anymore.
09:32So we're going to take the lowest country anywhere in
09:34the world, and that's what we're going to be paying.
09:37And we'll be saving from 50 to 89 percent.
09:40And these are big, these are tremendous numbers.
09:43There's not going to be anything where we're paying
09:4510 times more than somebody else.
09:47And one thing that is very important, and it's got to
09:50be implemented.
09:51It's done.
09:52I've done the order.
09:53It's done.
09:55But we have to get somebody that's got a lot of
09:57strength and a lot of power, because you have to
09:59implement it, because these countries are going to go
10:02down fighting.
10:03They don't want this to happen, because they're
10:05going to go up.
10:05Now, there are many more people involved in the
10:08world than there are here.
10:10So they'll go up a little bit, maybe 15, 20 percent,
10:13and we're going to go down 60, 70, or 80 percent.
10:17But they will fight the drug companies.
10:19The drug companies are very worried that they're going
10:21to fight, and that's okay if they fight.
10:24We'll just say, that's okay.
10:25We are not going to let you sell any more cars into
10:28the United States, or we're not going to let you sell
10:30any more wine or liquor or alcohol or something that's
10:33actually much more important to them than the drugs.
10:38And we're going to be able to force that issue if we
10:40need to.
10:41They should do it.
10:42We're basically equalizing.
10:44They should do it.
10:46And you know, the drug companies should do just as
10:48well.
10:48This shouldn't be a hit on their stock.
10:49I don't think it will be.
10:51It's basically, it's going to be the same amount of
10:53money, but it's going to be redistributed, and it's
10:56going to be redistributed, so they're going to pay a
10:58little bit more, and we're going to pay a lot less.
11:00A little bit more because there's so many more.
11:02So, you know, it's a bigger, it's a bigger number.
11:05And so, probably, I'd like to ask you and Dr. Oz and
11:10Marty, perhaps, and Jay, and maybe representing the
11:13world's politicians, I can ask Roger, who's so great with
11:17this whole subject, if you would be very, very tough and
11:21very, very powerful in a sense, it's not easy.
11:25You know, you're going to have to get this done.
11:28The drug companies are going to say, well, they won't do
11:30it, and maybe they won't.
11:32And if they don't do it, we're going to not do business
11:34with that country or those countries.
11:36But we're going to have to be very tough until it's
11:38totally stabilized and equalized.
11:41And Oz, I mean, I see your eyes are gleaming because
11:44you've been talking about this for a long time, but
11:46you've never had anyone willing to do it.
11:48But I'm willing to do it.
11:50And I think it's going to go down as one of the most
11:53important things we've ever done because drug costs are
11:55going down.
11:56Think of it.
11:57Then every year for 21 years, the costs have gone up.
12:00And now they're going down maybe by 85, 80.
12:03And I'm telling you, 89% in two instances, 89% cut.
12:08Nobody's ever seen anything like it.
12:09So I'd like to ask Oz in particular, because you and I
12:14know each other.
12:14He's a very tough hombre, this one.
12:16He's tough as hell.
12:18And so if you can lead the group, and it's not going
12:20to be easy.
12:21You're going to have to get in and you're going to have
12:22to fight.
12:23If you do it, you can have within a period of weeks, you
12:26can have drug costs that drop like a rock, OK?
12:28So you as a group, I have great confidence.
12:31And if you don't do it, I am firing every single one of you.
12:37Good luck, guys.
12:38All right?