Benny Johnson
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
And we actually looked at that when I came into the agency.
We realized we were actually paying more for eight of those, eight of the 10 drugs.
The 22% reduction was off of list price.
And Medicare ended up paying more for eight of the drugs, equal for the ninth, and about a 2% discount on the 10th drug.
So that was the plan, and that's what they did.
We are continuing the RA negotiations, but thanks to the president's leadership, we have achieved something extraordinary here.
which is a dream that he's had for 20 years because he's the common sense president.
He saw something 20 years ago.
He learned that we were playing three, four, five, sometimes 10 times for the same drug as they were playing in European countries.
Some of these drugs were manufactured in facilities in New Jersey and then sold for one-tenth the price in Great Britain and London or Paris that Americans were being charged for them a year.
He saw that this was unfair.
Every Democratic president, every Republican president has said that this was the gold standard.
This is what we needed to do.
Nobody's been able to change it.
And when we came in, I have to say I was pessimistic about doing MFN.
Dr. Oz was pessimistic.
Our staff, John Brooke and Chris Klump and the other people we brought in were all pessimistic.
The president saw something that we didn't see, which is we had leverage.
And that came through Howard and the tariffs.
And we had extraordinary leverage to craft these deals.