President Donald Trump's May 12, 2025, executive order directs Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Department of Health and Human Services to establish price targets for pharmaceutical manufacturers. (Mark Wilson/Andrew Harnik)
For example, there was a series of initiatives that states unveiled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to address price-gouging, although they were difficult to enforce. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order in March 2020 that barred individuals or businesses from selling any products in the state "at a price that is more than 20 percent higher than what the business or individual offered or charged," according to a 2020 news release.
Trump announced Monday that the executive order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to establish price targets for pharmaceutical manufacturers. But Cannon noted that the order isn't just for prices for the government — it also applies to the free market and private sector.
Failure to comply will prompt the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to "undertake enforcement action against any anti-competitive practices," along with other consequences. Additionally, Trump introduced plans to launch "most favored nations drug pricing."
"The principle is simple — whatever the lowest price paid for a drug in other developed countries, that is the price that Americans will pay," Trump said at the White House Monday. "Some prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices will be reduced almost immediately by 50 to 80 to 90%."
"We’re going to equalize," Trump said. "We’re all going to pay the same. We’re going to pay what Europe pays."
The White House pushed back against comments that the move equated price control.
"If Americans had a truly free and fair market, they would not be paying several times more for the same exact prescription drugs as Europeans do," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a Tuesday statement to Fox News Digital. "President Trump’s historic executive order is fixing the anti-competitive behavior that’s forcing everyday Americans to subsidize the health care of other developed nations."
In April, President Donald Trump signed another executive order that aimed to tackle Medicare drug prices. (Pool)
In April, Trump signed another executive order that aimed to tackle Medicare drug prices. Specifically, that order required HHS to standardize Medicare payments for prescription drugs, including those used for cancer patients, regardless of where a patient receives treatment.
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Patients could face a drop in prices by as much as 60%, according to a White House fact sheet.
The order also called to match the Medicare payment for certain prescription drugs to the price that hospitals pay for those drugs, up to 35% lower than what the government pays to acquire those medications, per the White House.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-wrong-headed-effort-lower-drug-costs-amounts-price-control-expert