WASHINGTON — President Trump said his administration’s new TrumpRx website will offer the cheapest prices in the world for 43 brand-name drugs, and counting. But about half of them are already available as generics, usually for much less.
The website is part of the president’s plan to lower drug prices in the U.S. and to counter political attacks by Democrats who have increasingly focused on rising health care costs. Trump unveiled the site on Thursday evening, saying “this launch represents the largest reduction in prescription drug prices in history by many many times, and it’s not even close.”
TrumpRx does not sell medicines directly. Instead, it displays prices available to consumers who pay cash without using insurance, and in some cases directs patients to other sites where they can buy the therapies. The website touts steep discounts for many drugs, compared to their list prices. But an analysis by STAT reveals that’s far from the whole story.
At least 18 brand-name drugs on TrumpRx have cheaper generics available via GoodRx or Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs. In some cases, consumers could save hundreds of dollars by going with the exact same generic medicine, instead of TrumpRx’s price. STAT’s analysis is similar to a finding from Sarah Karlin-Smith, a research director at the advocacy group Public Citizen, and from Brian Reid, founder of Reid Strategic and a senior fellow at Tufts’ Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health.
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