Pharma companies seek stability in Trump's fight against high drug cost

Several major pharmaceutical companies lowered their spending on lobbyists in the second quarter of 2018, a time of uncertainty as President Donald Trump’s administration continued its campaign to lower drug costs for consumers.
 

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America spent $5.54 million between April and June, down 7.7 percent from the same period last year, according to disclosures released by the federal government on Friday.
 

Companies including Johnson & Johnson and Bayer Corp. decreased their spending from the first quarter, when several companies set lobbying records amid the first signs of Trump’s moves to reduce out-of-pocket medicine costs.

The president himself has made pharmaceutical companies targets of his barbed tweets.
 

Lobbying efforts by Merck & Co. cost $830,000 in the second quarter, and this represented a 57.9 percent decrease from last year. Pfizer Inc., on the other hand, spent $1.94 million on Washington lobbying in the second quarter, a 2.1 percent increase in lobbying spending since last year.
 

In May, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar published “American Patients First,” a blueprint detailing plans to lower prices and out-of-pocket costs by lifting rules preventing government health programs from securing deep discounts and introducing incentives for drug-makers. 

On Wednesday, Azar submitted a proposal to the White House that would cut rebates offered to insurers and pharmacy-benefit managers, a measure drug companies have not backed.
 

Earlier this month, after the end of the period reflected in the disclosures, Pfizer decided to delay expected increases in drug prices after Trump tweeted the company was “merely taking advantage of the poor.”