Posted by Michael Wonder on 06 Sep 2018
Will Trump's pharma shaming bring down drug prices? Not likely, poll says.
6 September 2018 - In July, Pfizer put plans to raise the prices of some of its products on hold after President Donald Trump shamed the company on Twitter for “merely taking advantage of the poor & others unable to defend themselves, while at the same time giving bargain basement prices to other countries in Europe & elsewhere.”
Pfizer’s announcement came about a month after Trump promised big pharma would institute “voluntary massive drops in prices.”
Well, a deferment of price increases is not a price cut—and now many Americans are expressing doubts that Trump’s public shaming of the industry will actually cause drug costs to fall.
Only 42% of Americans believe the president’s strategy of public shaming will bring down the cost of prescription drugs, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest Kaiser Health Tracking poll, released yesterday. Even fewer—38%—believe Trump will make good on his campaign promise to lower drug prices.
