In case you missed it, former U.S. Congressman Ryan Costello (R-PA) appeared on The Mark Gallagher Show this week to discuss President Trump’s recent actions on drug pricing and his commitment to holding drug companies accountable for making Americans pay higher prices than any other country in the world:
“The fact that the president campaigned on lowering prescription drugs, then he gets into office, he does exactly what he says he does. It’s just another example of the kind of the no-nonsense, get things done approach of the president, which I think most Americans find very refreshing.
“It’s telling drug companies, number one, you control the prices. Bring the prices down… the real simple thing is to remember, pharmaceutical companies control what the price of their drugs are… and President Trump has said, ‘do not charge other countries less than you’re charging hardworking Americans.’”
Big Pharma exploits loopholes to game the system in order to keep prices higher in the United States than in other countries — and the pharmaceutical industry’s agenda in Washington is to push heavy handed government interventions in the private marketplace to undermine others in the supply chain, that would further increase drug companies’ pricing power, and help them keep drug prices high.
“You have a president who’s going to say no more. And what Big Pharma is looking to do is create more rules to give them more advantages to be able to keep drug prices high. And what President Trump is doing, and what Republicans in Congress, I hope, are going to do… is to make sure that pharmaceutical companies do not continue to get the same sort of advantages that they’ve enjoyed for decades upon decades. Which in effect…have driven the cost of prescription drugs here in the United States to levels that are much higher than anywhere else in the world.
“Be weary when corporate America is asking the government for more rules and regulations. It has a tendency to create competitive advantages for certain industries and certain companies, and the loser ends up being the American family.”
Costello also noted billionaire Mark Cuban appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday. Cuban has proven time and again to be an opponent of President Trump’s agenda, while putting his business interests in the prescription drug market above the good of the American consumer:
“Mark Cuban, Kamala Harris’ chief spokesperson during the campaign, who now has his own way of going about trying to make money off the sale of pharmaceutical drugs to the detriment of American taxpayers. It’s deeply frustrating when you get entrepreneurs that come in and say they’re going to do something good, and it ends up costing American taxpayers even more money when it comes to prescription drug prices.”
Listen to the full show, including Costello’s interview, on The Mark Gallagher Show HERE.
