President Donald Trump’s administration is taking a serious look at importing prescription drugs to combat rising drug costs at home, according to a Kaiser Health News report published on the Washington Post.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced that the administration would begin looking into the idea, which also received the backing of Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb.
“They’re approaching it incrementally and wisely, they’re focusing on prices where there’s a need,” Avalere Founder Dan Mendelson, who also served under the Clinton White House, told Kaiser Health News. “It is certainly more narrow than the way others have conceptualized it.”
According to the report, a group convened by Azar will look at how importation can stymie sudden surges in drug prices. The government would import cheaper similar or identical pharmaceuticals to enter the arena at home.
