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DRUG-ADDLED: Industry experts say Trump’s proposals to eliminate rules for testing new drugs could put more ineffective drugs on the market.
RON SACHS/GETTY
ON THE last day in January, President Donald Trump met with executives from some of the wealthiest pharmaceutical companies in the United States to discuss the future of their industry. The meeting, closed to the press after opening remarks, included an issue vital to most people not inside the room: the high price of pharmaceuticals. “We have to get prices down,” the president said in his introduction. “We have no choice.” He suggested several means toward that end, but veterans of the battle to lower drug prices say the proposed ideas are unlikely to accomplish anything—at least not without also harming patients.