Trump Claims $26 Billion Saved Through Generic Drugs, but It’s Not That Clear: Report

On Jan. 11, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that 2018 was marked by a decline in prescription drug prices – the first time that had happened in 50 years. Also, the president said that Americans saved $26 billion on drug prices in the first 19 months of his presidency. Trump ended his tweet by stating that his administration’s policies to get cheaper generic drugs to the market are working. All of this was announced while pharmaceutical companies that serve the U.S. market were announcing price hikes on a number of branded drugs. On the same day, Trump made his announcement, Johnson & Johnson increased the price by an average of 4.2 percent on about two dozen prescription medicines, including branded drugs Stelara, Zytiga and Xarelto. J&J isn’t the only company to announce price increases for 2019. In November, pharma giant Pfizer announced plans to raise the price of 41 drugs in January. Also increasing prices are Biogen, Amgen, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Allergan, and AstraZeneca. The increases were mostly below 10 percent, although there have been some noted outliers, such as Hikma Pharmaceuticals. That company increased the price of its blood pressure drug enalaprilat by 30 percent.