Pharma Leaders to Meet Trump in Push to Tweak Drug Policies

The pharmaceutical industry’s biggest lobbying group is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter, part of an effort to persuade him to scale back some of his predecessor’s policies.

The meeting will include Stephen Ubl, head of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, one of the people said, along with the CEOs of several major drugmakers. The industry is hoping to win the new administration’s support for changes to a law that allows the federal government to negotiate certain drug prices.

Stephen Ubl

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The summit comes two days after PhRMA rented out a concert venue for a lavish meeting in Washington, D.C., where executives spoke effusively about the industry’s future under Trump while echoing the president’s concerns about rising competition from China.

“The prospects for bold, meaningful change have never been greater,” Ubl said at the event, standing in front of a video screen displaying a rippling American flag. “We have a disruptor-in-chief in President Trump and a bold new health secretary, both committed to breaking the status quo.”

Albert Bourla

Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg

Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said the new administration brings “boldness” to the White House, in contrast to the “extreme left” that steered the Biden administration’s approach to the industry. The CEOs of GSK Plc, Novartis AG and Merck & Co. were also in attendance at the event in Washington.

The life sciences are “the crown jewel of the US economy,” Bourla said, one under threat from the rise of Chinese pharmaceutical firms. Bourla, who joined the CEO of Eli Lilly & Co. for a dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in December, has become the industry’s loudest voice on the subject of the new administration.

“The dominance that the US is enjoying right now in life sciences, in medical innovation, will be challenged seriously in the next few years,” he said.

Bourla, PhRMA’s incoming chairman, has said the second Trump administration presents more opportunities than risks for drugmakers. The president, who once accused pharma of “getting away with murder” in drug pricing, is on board with the industry’s goal of improving cancer treatment, Bourla has said. He’s similarly optimistic about incoming health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has espoused discredited theories about vaccine safety and listed Pfizer’s Covid shot as among “the most deadly vaccines in history.”

“Do I think that we can convince them to do something bold in vaccines with Kennedy in HHS? Probably not,” Bourla said Tuesday. “But do I think that we can convince them to do something very bold for cancer or cardiovascular diseases with Kennedy in the HHS? Absolutely yes.”

--With assistance from Nyah Phengsitthy.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Damian Garde in New York at dgarde@bloomberg.net;
Madison Muller in New York at mmuller84@bloomberg.net;
Josh Wingrove in Washington at jwingrove4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net

Lindsay Blakely

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