US govt, AstraZeneca announce deal to slash drug prices

The Star

The US administration on Oct 10 unveiled a deal with UK-based drugmaker AstraZeneca under which the company will sell medicines at a discount to the government's Medicaid health plan, similar to a drug pricing pact reached with Pfizer last month.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:01Nice to have you. This is a big announcement.

00:03Today I'm excited to announce another historic achievement in our quest to lower drug prices.

00:08...the drugs equal for the ninth, and about a 2% discount on the tenth.

00:21This is for all Americans. You know, prices have come way down.

00:26Your vision for a healthy America. Today I'm really excited to announce

00:31AstraZeneca's commitment to your vision for a healthy America.

00:35Great leadership is about having an ambitious vision that can energize people,

00:41and you appoint a very talented team that can deliver on this.

00:45Your vision is exactly that. It is about lowering the price of medicines for American patients,

00:52while ensuring that America remains a global powerhouse of innovation in biopharmaceuticals.

00:59And that's not easy to do. We need to keep inventing the technologies and the products that will cure disease.

01:05But you actually gave us a key. Equalization. That's an important word.

01:10I want to say that I appreciate very much Secretary Leitnik granting us a three-year tariff exemption

01:19to localize the remainder of our products. Most of our products are locally manufactured,

01:24but we need to transfer the remaining part to this country.

01:28We're going to get, in some cases, a thousand percent reduction.

01:31It's going to have a huge impact on everything from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid.

01:38Anything where they're buying any prescription drugs, it's going to have an incredible impact.

01:42It's going to lower itself greatly.

01:44AstraZeneca will also list many of their most popular drugs online at TrumpRx.gov.

01:51TrumpRx. I don't know why they put the name Trump.

01:54I did not tell them to do it, but I'm honored to let them do it.

01:57That's true, actually. That heavily reduced most favored nations' cost.

02:02Americans can expect discounts, and as I said, it could be in many cases way over 100%.

02:09And as an example, one particular drug that's hot, very hot, 654% on inhalers, COPD and asthma,

02:20as well as certain diabetics' medications, they're going to be averaging about 654% reduction in price.

02:29Do you believe that one?

02:30TrumpRx, by the way, which just launched, TrumpRx.gov, which was a unanimous name, by the way, Mr. President.

02:35He was not involved in picking the name, but it was not a difficult one to land on.

02:39We thought it had a catchy element to it.

02:41All primary care medications sold by AstraZeneca are going to be available on TrumpRx,

02:46which means no more gaming, no more middlemen.

02:48Starting early next year, when you go to the website, you'll be able to see a marketplace.

02:53We're not selling the drugs.

02:54We're just making information available to everyone.

02:56So you go to the right place to buy the right medication.

03:00...equal for the ninth, and about a 2% discount...

03:04I'm notlish.

03:06you

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