Drugmakers have been warned that the Trump Administration is considering linking U.S. medicine prices to lower amounts paid by other developed countries, according to two company sources who called the option the pharmaceutical industry's top concern.

Both sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said they expected the policy to come from the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid health programs.

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As we’ve written, in August 2022 then-President Joe Biden signed the sweeping Inflation Reduction Act into law, which included several measures aimed at reducing prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries. The law required the federal government to negotiate the price of some Medicare drugs, capped monthly insulin copays at $35, capped seniors’ out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 a year for Medicare’s prescription drugs and made vaccines free.

President Donald Trump has been accused of raising prescription drug prices for seniors by immediately rescinding former President Joe Biden's executive order to lower costs after beginning his second term on Monday.

Amid an avalanche of executive orders from Trump on Inauguration Day, Biden's executive order 14087, "Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for Americans," was among several dozen that Trump reversed in an order targeting the "recession of harmful executive orders and actions."

The Biden administration on Wednesday said it will impose inflation penalties on 64 prescription drugs for the third quarter of this year, lowering costs for certain older Americans enrolled in Medicare. 

TOPLINE The arrests of two executives of a large telehealth medication company may worsen an almost two-year ADHD medication shortage and disrupt the care of upwards of 50,000 patients across the country, but the CDC warns against seeking treatment from the illegal drug market as an alternative.

KEY FACTS

While the demand for weight loss drugs continues to surge, one Wall Street firm is betting that Americans' love for doughnuts is too strong to give them up. 

Truist Securities on Monday upgraded Krispy Kreme to buy from hold, with analysts led by Bill Chappell saying that the negative impact of the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) drugs has already been reflected in the stock's current valuation.

A bipartisan Senate panel is introducing legislation to tackle the mounting crisis of generic prescription drug shortages.

“It’s unacceptable that America is consistently running out of affordable and essential generic medicines,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) said Friday in a press statement. “Our bipartisan proposal uses the power of Medicare and Medicaid to ensure the entire American health system has adequate supply for key medicines across the country.”

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday in the biggest abortion case in the two years since it rolled back women’s reproductive health protections by striking down Roe v. Wade. In that disastrous 6-3 decision, Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, said, “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”