In TV ads, the pharmaceutical industry claims congressional plans to allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices in Medicare would deny beneficiaries’ access to medicines their doctors prescribe. Experts say that’s unlikely, and an inaccurate portrayal of recent legislation.
At a rally in Sanford, Florida, President Trump made the exaggerated claim that his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, “voted to obliterate” Puerto Rico’s pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.
President Donald Trump last year signed a bill — the Right to Try Act — that provided another avenue for terminally ill patients to gain access to unapproved medications still in development. But there’s no evidence that the new law is saving “a lot of people,” as the president claims.
It’s true, as President Trump says, that branded prescription drugs are generally cheaper outside the U.S. But he distorts the facts when he says, “as usual, the world is taking advantage of us.”
Gauging by the attack ads flowing from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s House contenders are running against Exxon, Pfizer and Bush. The ads tie Republican House candidates to unpopular industries and an unpopular President. Some of these ads are exaggerations.