Trump Says Will Reduce Drug Prices By Around 1,500%

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that he will reduce drug prices by 1,400% to 1,500%, while reiterating his promise of slapping higher tariffs on the import of pharmaceuticals.

"Going to do a number on costs of drugs in US," he said during the briefing. This comes nearly a month after Trump, in letters to pharmaceutical majors like Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, set a deadline of Sept. 29 to lower drug prices.

Trump asked them to extend the "most-favored-nation" pricing to Medicaid. "Provide your full portfolio of existing drugs at MFN rates for every single Medicaid patient," he stated.

Trump noted that a failure to comply with these directives by Sept. 29 would compel his administration to "deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices".

Notably, the big pharma firms which have been issued the letter includes AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers, GSK, Merck, Novartis, Roche and Sanofi.

Earlier this month he also said that the tariffs on pharmaceuticals can go up to 250%. He clarified that initially he will push small tariffs but in over a year it would move to 150% and then it will rise to 250%. This move is in order to move the production of pharmaceuticals in the country.