*By Alisha Haridasani*
President Trump promised to bring “soaring drug prices back down to earth” on Friday, saying he would encourage more competition and stop foreign countries from keeping drug prices low so that American consumers must pay more for the same drugs.
In a speech in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said his administration was "putting American patients first." His plan calls on the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate the approval of more over-the-counter drugs and introduce more generic and biosimilar drugs to increase competition.
The administration's plan also aims to bolster Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, known as Part D, to have more ways of negotiating prices with drug makers. But Trump’s plan stopped short of letting Medicare negotiate prices with drug makers directly, something he talked about in his campaign. His proposal also removes the so-called "gag rule," which prevents pharmacists from informing patients about cheaper options.
Stocks of some pharmaceuticals, including Johnson & Johnson and Novartis, were trading higher after Trump’s speech in the Rose Garden.
That may be because the [12-point plan](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trumps-blueprint-lower-drug-prices/) won't do enough to pressure drug companies to lower their prices, said Adriel Bettelheim, the health care editor at Politico.
“I think it’s more bark than bite,” said Bettelheim. “I think the investors are kind of relieved. They see this is a series of possible options, incremental administrative steps that maybe lower some patients’ drug costs but don’t actually get at the company’s abilities to set prices.”
A major pillar of Trump’s proposal includes pressuring foreign countries to pay more for American drugs.
On average, prescription medications comprised around [17 percent](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27552619) of overall personal health care costs for Americans in 2016. Patients in the U.S. pay as much as six times more for drugs than patients in other countries, according to the International Federation of Health Plans. Foreign governments can offer cheaper drugs to patients overseas by negotiating directly with American drug makers and implementing price control measures in their countries.
Though the administration can’t force other governments to pay more for American drugs, it can renegotiate trade agreements and toughen intellectual property protections to have that effect, said Bettelheim.
“Whether it has a corresponding effect of lowering prices here in the United States is another story,” he said.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/trump-outlines-plan-to-lower-drug-prices).
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to block states from regulating artificial intelligence. He argues that heavy regulations could stifle the industry, especially given competition from China. Trump says the U.S. needs a unified approach to AI regulation to avoid complications from state-by-state rules. The order directs the administration to draw up a list of problematic regulations for the Attorney General to challenge. States with laws could lose access to broadband funding, according to the text of the order. Some states have already passed AI laws focusing on transparency and limiting data collection.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
House Republicans in key battleground districts are working to contain the political fallout expected when thousands of their constituents face higher bills for health insurance coverage obtained through the Affordable Care Act. For a critical sliver of the GOP majority, the impending expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits after Dec. 31 could be a major political liability as they potentially face midterm headwinds in a 2026 election critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda. For Democrats, the party’s strategy for capturing the House majority revolves around pinning higher bills for groceries, health insurance and utilities on Republicans.
President Donald Trump says a deal struck by Netflix last week to buy Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share. The Republican president says he will be involved in the decision about whether federal regulators should approve the deal. Trump commented Sunday when he was asked about the deal as he walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors. The $72 billion deal would bring together two of the biggest players in television and film and potentially reshape the entertainment industry.
The two-sentence footnote raised serious concerns about accuracy and credibility.
