16 Oct Newsweek: Is Trump Administration Working With Big Business To Keep Drug Prices High?
“As President Donald Trump wields his executive power to roll back portions of Obamacare, a new lawsuit seeks to force his administration to detail why it delayed penalizing drug makers for overcharging for certain prescriptions.
The suit, filed Friday by the nonprofit watchdog group Democracy Forward and shared first with Newsweek, pushes the Office of Management and Budget for details about any role an ex-pharmaceutical lobbyist has played in blocking the anti-price gouging regulation.
The ex-lobbyist, Joseph Grogan, joined OMB as associate director of health programs after Trump took office. Previously, Grogan served as a top lobbyist for Gilead Sciences, the company that famously marketed Sovaldi, a hepatitis C treatment that cost patients $1,000 a day.
The president has decried drug costs as “outrageous,” but his administration has put the brakes on the anti-gouging regulation, which would apply to companies that overcharge for drugs discounted under a federal program called 340B. The discount is geared toward hospitals and clinics that serve low-income patients.”
