Fact Check: Joe Biden Falsely Claims Trump Has Not Lowered Drug Prices

CLAIM: President Donald Trump has not lowered drug prices for anyone, according to former Vice President Joe Biden.

VERDICT: FALSE.

The fact is that drug prices have fallen under President Trump for the first time in nearly half a century.

As Breitbart News noted in an fact check earlier this year, Trump’s regulatory changes have removed some of the barriers to, and costs of, drug production.

As MarketWatch explained last year:

Here’s a shocker: The cost of prescription drugs are falling for the first time in 47 years.

The government on Tuesday said prescription prices sank 1% in February, marking the biggest one-month decline ever.

What’s more, the cost of prescription drugs over the past year have dropped by 1.2%. That’s the biggest 12-month decline since 1972.

What’s going on?

Drugmakers are feeling the heat, for one thing. Amid a public outcry, lawmakers in both parties from President Trump on down have been pushing drug makers to rein in prices or face potentially stiffer rules. Congress has already held a half-dozen hearings this year and grilled drug industry executives in public.

Episodes of pubic browbeating can only go so far, though. Government regulators are seeking to do their part by speeding up the approval of generic drugs to increase competition. A slew of new one ones are hitting the market in 2019.

Read the full MarketWatch article here.

Trump has also made experimental medicines and therapies more easily available through new laws championed by his administration, such as Right to Try. And his effort to cut red tape at the Food and Drug Administration during the coronavirus pandemic could have long-term effects in lowering drug prices.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.