15 January 2019 - Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said that drug prices are still too high for patients, and that the administration would go beyond the policies it has laid out in its blueprint if the trend didn’t reverse. 

He said the administration was open to working with both Democrats and Republicans, as long as the policies “preserve drug safety and keep the patient at the center.” “Some manufacturers are still in denial about whether bringing down list prices is even an important goal,” Azar said at an event Tuesday by the Council for Affordable Health Coverage. “They claim that these skyrocketing prices don’t matter. But these prices do matter to patients, in a number of important ways.” 

Azar pointed out that while drug prices had risen in the new year, drug companies took 57% fewer price increases on brand drugs compared with the same period in 2017. He said some companies had cut the list price on certain drugs, and that early data suggested that the 2019 price increases were smaller and fewer in number than in 2018.

Read Washington Examiner article