TrumpRx promises cheapest drugs. Many cost less already

WASHINGTON — President Trump mentioned his administration’s new TrumpRx web site will supply the most cost effective costs on this planet for 43 brand-name medication, and counting. However about half of them are already obtainable as generics, often for a lot much less.

The web site is a part of the president’s plan to decrease drug costs within the U.S. and to counter political assaults by Democrats who’ve more and more targeted on rising well being care prices. Trump unveiled the location on Thursday night, saying “this launch represents the biggest discount in prescription drug costs in historical past by many many occasions, and it’s not even shut.” 

TrumpRx doesn’t promote medicines instantly. As an alternative, it shows costs obtainable to shoppers who pay money with out utilizing insurance coverage, and in some instances directs sufferers to different websites the place they’ll purchase the therapies. The web site touts steep reductions for a lot of medication, in comparison with their record costs. However an evaluation by STAT reveals that’s removed from the entire story.

No less than 18 brand-name medication on TrumpRx have cheaper generics obtainable through GoodRx or Mark Cuban’s Value Plus Medication. In some instances, shoppers might save a whole bunch of {dollars} by going with the very same generic medication, as an alternative of TrumpRx’s worth. STAT’s evaluation is much like a discovering from Sarah Karlin-Smith, a analysis director on the advocacy group Public Citizen, and from Brian Reid, founding father of Reid Strategic and a senior fellow at Tufts’ Heart for the Analysis of Worth and Danger in Well being, who additionally evaluated the location’s choices.