Originally Published as A Blueprint to Understand Executive Authority on Allowing Safe Personal Drug Importation on PrescriptionJustice.org.
Yesterday, President Trump announced four executive orders with the stated intent of substantially lowering drug prices. Briefly, the administration’s bluster on drug prices over the past three years has been far louder than any actions taken to actually do something about it. Better late than never.
The orders call for and include: 1) Lower prices on EpiPens and insulin, 2) Allowing personal drug importation, 3) Ending profit-taking by pharmacy benefit manager middlemen, and 4) “most favored nation” drug price negotiation in Medicare, meaning Medicare would get the lowest price on drugs of any country.
Obviously, we need more details to analyze the orders, but we’ve done substantial research into executive authorities specifically on personal drug importation. During the signing ceremony, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Alex Azar clearly stated: “You’re going to have a personal importation program, where individuals can get their drugs low cost from abroad.”
Here is the Prescription Justice full policy paper on executive actions on personal drug importation.
How the Trump Administration Can Rapidly Lower Drug Costs for Americans
