Neal on Drug Pricing: “Democrats Paved the Way for Today’s Announcement”

SPRINGFIELD, MA—Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard E. Neal (D-MA) released the following statement after Trump posed with pharmaceutical CEOs and followed in Democrats’ footsteps to lower the cost of GLP-1 medications:

“Democrats paved the way for today’s announcement, and we welcome any genuine effort to lower costs for the American people.  

“This Administration may need to name this initiative after their dear leader to stroke his ego, but make no mistake, these new prices are the negotiated rates made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act, and the work Democrats did to lower drug prices without a single Republican vote. We fought to cap insulin at $35 a month, to let Medicare negotiate directly with drug companies, and finally put patients ahead of profits.

“But where Trump is wrong: Americans deserve the same fair prices people around the world pay, not the higher ones our nation has become far too accustomed to, and certainly not the inflated costs driven up from his unlawful tariffs. In the same breath of talking tough on getting us a ‘better deal’, Trump is using trade negotiations to force other countries to raise prices abroad. That’s no win for patients, just a massive handout to Big Pharma dressed up as a deal. 

“Today’s announcement doesn’t change the fact that one of his first actions in office was cutting the Biden-era rule that would have expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 drugs and given seniors wider access to these life-changing medications.”

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