By Rachel Cohrs Zhang and Jaewon Kang
US health officials met with Walmart Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and other retailers this week as part of an effort to help Americans get their medicines more directly from companies that make them, according to people familiar with the talks.
The conversations between the Trump administration and experts from the nascent straight-to-consumer drug industry are intended to explore streamlining the way Americans get their medicines and therefore lower costs, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services conducted the meeting to discuss options, the people said. It was unclear what the department’s approach and timeline would be in pursuing such a venture.
Walmart, Amazon and HHS declined to comment.
Reducing America’s drug prices, currently the highest in the world, is one of President Donald Trump’s top health policy goals. In May, he signed an executive order calling on the pharmaceutical industry to cut costs to the lowest level paid by similar countries. Part of that proposal instructed HHS to help Americans directly buy their medicine at those lower prices.
One reason drugs are so expensive in the US is because they go through so many bureaucratic steps before they reach a patient.
Most Americans get their drugs from pharmacies, which are paid primarily by insurance companies. The insurers work with other companies, called pharmacy benefit managers, to negotiate the prices with manufacturers. That process involves rebates, a fee that critics say inflates costs and the industry says is essential to prevent drugmakers from charging exorbitant prices. Trump has been talking about cracking down on PBMs since his first administration.
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This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.
