President Donald Trump suggested that the drug industry may be behind Democrats' impeachment inquiry of him, saying lobbyists for biopharmaceutical makers were supporting the effort.
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"We're lowering the cost of prescription drugs, taking on the pharmaceutical companies," Trump said during an often fiery speech on Oct. 3 at The Villages retirement community in Florida. "You think that's easy? It's not easy. It's not easy. They come at you from all different sides. I wouldn't be surprised if the hoax didn't come a little bit from some of the people that we're taking on."
Trump said the drug industry is "very powerful" and spends "more money than any other group in the world" on lobbying in Washington.
He said the "nonsense" he is facing may be coming from industries, like biopharmaceutical manufacturers.
Neither Trump nor the White House provided any evidence to back up his assertions.
"Not be so frank, but it is ridiculous you are asking me about it. Of course we are not," Holly Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America told S&P Global Market Intelligence in response to Trump's remarks.
The White House has been engaged with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office on finding an agreement on how to lower drug prices in the U.S.
Pelosi and House Democrats introduced a bill in September that mirrors a number of proposals from the White House, including Trump's pending proposal to use a foreign pricing model for setting U.S. prices, though his idea is more limited than the Democrats'.
In an Oct. 2 tweet, Trump said Pelosi was "incapable" of working on the drug pricing issue, saying it and the legislation being worked out for the trade deal with Canada and Mexico was "just camouflage for trying to win an election through impeachment."
White House spokesman Judd Deere, however, told S&P Global Market Intelligence that the "lines of communications remain open" between Pelosi's office and the administration.
Trump's speech was intended to outline his healthcare vision, though he did not discuss a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act.
While in Florida, he also signed an executive order aimed at promoting actions to boost access to Medicare and speed payment of drugs covered by the program.
Florida importation
Trump also suggested Florida's proposal to import medicines into the U.S. from Canada and other foreign nations would soon be approved.
He said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, would "soon" get a "big fat, beautiful surprise" that would allow him to "go out and negotiate until his heart's content" in Canada and Europe.
"I have a feeling that when that happens, the drug companies will just say we can't have this and they're just going to drop their prices," Trump said. "Now they're very smart, they may go the other way, and if they do, don't blame me."
DeSantis submitted the plan to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in late August after the agency a month earlier outlined two pathways as potential courses of action that for importing prescription medicines into the U.S. — primarily from Canada — as a way to lower Americans' drug costs.
HHS has not yet issued any rules or guidelines on how it would carry out Florida's plan or any other similar proposal the agency may receive.
Florida officials said the state's concept paper submitted to HHS was intended to serve as a model to inform the agency as it develops its importation rules.
The drug industry, Canada and others have objected to HHS' two pathways, which are not official proposals.
Democrats, however, have largely been on board with importation and have introduced a number of bills that would allow the practice.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who has partnered with Democrats on drug importation legislation, said if the Trump administration moves forward with its two pathways, it should at least reinstate surprise inspections of foreign manufacturing facilities.
In his Aug. 6 letter to HHS and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Grassley said he was also concerned that it was not clear how drugs intended for foreign markets imported into the U.S. by manufacturers would be tracked and traced.
Right to Try
Trump also repeated earlier claims that the Right to Try Act, which he signed in May 2018, has resulted in "miracles" for patients taking unapproved experimental treatments.
Trump has been promoting the law as saving patients' lives — a claim not backed up by evidence. The White House, HHS and the FDA have repeatedly declined to provide any such proof.
The 2018 law, which Trump pushed lawmakers to adopt, permits critically ill U.S. patients to seek experimental treatments without going through the FDA's expanded-access program, also known as compassionate use, which has been in place for decades. The FDA said it grants about 99% of the compassionate-use requests it receives.
Critics have said the real intent of the Right to Try Act was to weaken the FDA and have raised concerns that desperately ill patients could be exposed to "snake oil" salesmen peddling false hopes.

President Donald Trump