Trump’s next plan to lower US drug prices: Raise them in other countries | CNN Business

President Donald Trump wants drugmakers to lower their prices in the US — so he’ll push them to raise prices in other countries to offset the hit to their bottom line, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Friday.

“The president’s going to say that you drug manufacturers cannot sell here unless you sell there at a higher price. Stop being willing to sell to them at such a low price,” Lutnick said Friday on “The Axios Show.”

Lutnick’s comments are the latest in a series of pronouncements by the Trump administration aimed at pressuring pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug prices for Americans.

The president’s main effort centers on getting drugmakers to offer the same price in the US as they do in Europe and other peer countries, the so-called “Most Favored Nation” price. Trump has repeatedly said that US patients are subsidizing their counterparts elsewhere. Americans paid nearly three times as much for medications as did people in comparable countries in 2022.

However, experts have questioned Trump’s authority to dictate drug prices in other countries or force companies to sell at certain prices in the US. Any mandate would likely be met with legal action.

Some industry experts have said that it’s more likely that drugmakers will raise prices in other countries than lower them in the US. Last month, Eli Lilly announced it would hike the price of its weight-loss drug Mounjaro in the United Kingdom in order to reduce its cost in the US.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry’s main trade association, said in a statement that getting “foreign countries to pay their fair share for innovative medicines” is one way to drive down prices. But it warned against implementing a “Most Favored Nation” policy.