NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 23: In a photo illustration, prescription drugs are seen next to a pill bottle on July 23, 2024 in New York City. A major issue in the presidential race between both parties is the increase in prescription drug prices, an issue that especially energizes older voters. From 2022 to 2023 the average increase of drug prices in the U.S. was 15.2%, higher than the inflation rate, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The shift in their political standing shows up in pharmaceutical companies’ contributions to candidates. An industry that gave three or four times as much to GOP candidates as to Democrats in the 1990s and early 2000s is now hedging its bets. So far in the 2024 cycle, drug companies have given $4.89 million to Democrats and $4.35 million to Republicans,At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week, Harris and fellow Democrats touted their records on curbing drug prices.
“In the United States of America, no senior should have to choose between either filling their prescription or paying their rent,”She has promised to extend both the annual drug spending cap and the insulin price cap to all Americans with insurance, not just those on Medicare, if elected president.that, in some instances, would empower the federal government to inject more competition into the marketplace by seizing the patents on some high-cost drugs developed with federal funds.
While Republicans as a party remain more friendly to the pharmaceutical industry, Trump has been willing to challenge GOP orthodoxy by taking action to combat high drug costs.estimated would cost five drugmakers as much as $500 million a year. What was known as the “most favored nation” interim final rule was blocked because of legal challenges and later rescinded by the Biden administration.
“The No. 1 issue he cared about while I was in the White House, and I continue to hear him talk about, is lowering drug prices,” said Theo Merkel, a senior research fellow at conservative think tanks Paragon Health Institute and the Manhattan Institute. Merkel was also a special assistant in the Trump White House. “I’m confident that will be at the top of the agenda,” he added.