The secretary of HHS had a direct message on Monday for the pharmaceutical companies that have hiked the prices of their products in recent months: The president sees you.
Speaking at an event hosted by the 340B Coalition, he alluded to a tweet earlier in the day from the commander-in-chief specifically calling out drug giant Pfizer and other drug companies for hiking their prices in recent months.
Pfizer hiked prices on about 40 drugs as of July 1, FiercePharma reported .
Azar echoed Trump's statement, saying those companies may soon come to regret those price hikes.
"The drug companies who recently increased prices may well be remembered for creating a tipping point in U.S. drug pricing policy," Azar said. "As you may have recently seen on Twitter, the president has noticed. I have noticed. And more importantly, the American people have noticed. Change is coming to prescription drug pricing whether it's painful or not for pharmaceutical companies."
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While Azar was not specific on what action the administration will take, he did address drug rebates, a common target of the Trump administration in their bid to disrupt a system "which drives lists prices ever higher while patients keep paying more and more." Some of the most popular brand-name drugs' prices have increased by an average of 12% each year between 2012 and 2017, based on Medicare Part D data, according to a report released earlier this year.
As FiercePharma reported, a Pfizer spokesman said the company markets more than 400 drugs and vaccines, and recently modified prices on about 10% of its portfolio, including some price reductions. List prices don't typically reflect what patients or insurers pay, he added, and net prices grew 0% in the first quarter due to a growing amount of rebates paid back to stakeholders in the biopharmaceutical supply chain. The company's share price soared following Trump's tweet.
In May, Trump unveiled what he called his "American Patients First" plan, aimed at tackling drug costs. In May, he also said a number of large drugmakers would voluntarily cut prices, a claim that has not yet come to fruition despite questions from members of Congress .
Azar has said companies have indicated to HHS they want to drop prices but could get penalized by distributors or pharmacy benefit managers as a result.
