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Pharma’s ‘Middleman’ Message Still Resonates With Trump

 
• By Michael McCaughan

Some pharma industry CEOs appear to have done well in their meeting with President-elect Donald Trump and his health care team.

President-elect Donald Trump speaks from his Mar-a-Lago club. (Shutterstock)
Key Takeaways
  • Just like at the start of his first term, pharma industry CEOs met with Donald Trump to convey their willingness to work with him, with mixed results.
  • Trump appeared to accept the industry message about pharmacy benefit managers causing drug prices to remain high.
  • But Trump still harbors questions about vaccines, and said industry will be working with his expected HHS Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition process is moving much faster this year than his first term, including, it seems, the moment where he hosted a delegation of pharmaceutical industry

Trump very publicly hosted a group of industry CEOs at the White House during the start of his first term in 2017. Having made drug pricing a surprising theme of his presidential campaign, Trump amped up the pressure with

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