Trump, nine pharmaceutical companies strike deal to cut prices

WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (Reuters): US President Donald Trump and nine major pharmaceutical companies on Friday announced deals that will slash the prices of their medicines for the government's Medicaid program and for cash payers, in his latest bid to align US costs with those in other wealthy nations.
Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Merck and Roche's US unit Genentech have struck deals. Novartis, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi and GSK have also signed on.
"We were subsidizing the entire world. We're not doing it anymore," Trump said at a White House press conference, flanked by nine drugmaker executives.
US patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere.
Despite the announcements, shares of most of the drugmakers rose about 1 per cent to 3 per cent as the deals removed Trump's threat of tariffs for three years and investors downplayed the impact of the price cuts the White House said were up to 70 per cent off list prices. Companies already give substantial after market discounts on most list prices.
"These deals re-affirm that the pharma leaders have taken this opportunity to collaborate with this administration to deliver headlines and minimize any step-change in company economics from these deals."