HHS Secretary Alex Azar on drug pricing

Alex
Azar, President Donald Trump’s nominee to become Secretary of
Health and Human Services, testifies during a Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing on
Capitol Hill.
AP

• Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar isn’t counting
  on pharmaceutical companies to do the right thing when it comes
  to drug prices. 
• “I’m not counting on their altruism or their cooperation,”
  Azar said at the Financial Times’ Pharma Pricing Summit on
  Thursday.

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar isn’t
banking on the pharmaceutical industry to fix the rising cost of
prescription drugs in the US. 

“I’m not counting on their altruism or their cooperation,” Azar
said at the Financial Times’ Pharma Pricing Summit on Thursday.
“We’re going to change the rules of the road to make enduring
changes to the incentive systems built into the channel.” 

The Trump administration has been vocal about lowering drug
prices in the US, coming to a head in July when President Donald
Trump
singled out pharma giant Pfizer for its price increases.

Shortly after, Pfizer and a number of major pharmaceutical
companies made various commitments not to increase the price of
its
medications until 2019. US pharma giant Merck went so
far as to lower the prices of
some of its medications. 

In May, the Trump administration laid out
a 
44-page
drug-pricing blueprint,
 calling out middlemen in
the pharmaceutical industry and “freeloading” by other countries
that pay less than the US for prescription drugs. Azar said
Thursday that it’ll take time for some of the regulations coming
out of that blueprint to take effect.

One of the areas he’s focused on, he said, are the rebates
pharmaceutical companies negotiate with those middlemen. The way
he sees it, rebates are leading to higher list
prices. 

“The rebate system we have is a constant incentive to
higher list prices,” Azar said. 

Azar’s no stranger to the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to
joining the Trump administration, he served as a senior
executive at Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company based in
Indianapolis. 

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