WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden

hosted a White House event with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on

Wednesday to tout their fight against high prescription drug

prices and push companies to cut the cost of inhalers for asthma

sufferers.

Biden said prescription drugs made by the same

pharmaceutical company cost at least two to three times more in

the U.S. than it does in developed countries such as Canada,

Italy and France. He did not name the company.

"Drug companies are charging exorbitant, exorbitant

prescription drug prices, higher prices than anywhere in the

world," he said. Biden added that his administration couldn't

have taken on the pharmaceutical industry without Sanders' help.

Biden, a Democrat, has made lowering healthcare costs a key

part of his 2024 reelection campaign. Sanders, as chairman of

the U.S. Senate's health committee, has already taken a series

of actions - from sending letters to holding hearings - aimed at

pressuring the pharmaceutical industry into lowering costs.

Biden said he wants to negotiate lower prices for 50 drugs

and wants to limit drug costs for Americans, not just seniors,

to $2,000 annually.

For example, the president said asthma is the most common

respiratory illness, currently affecting 27 million Americans,

including 4 million children. It takes less than $5 to make a

dose of asthma medication; that cost hasn't changed at all, but

drug companies have raised prices to eight times their original

cost.

One company charges $49 for an inhaler in the United Kingdom

but charges Americans $645 for the same device, Biden said,

without naming the company.

"It's time drug companies pay rebates when they increase

prices faster than inflation," he said.

Sanders and other lawmakers in January criticized four

makers of inhalers sold in the U.S. - AstraZeneca ( AZN ),

Boehringer, Teva Pharmaceuticals and GSK -

over prices that were much higher in the United States than in

other countries.

In March, three of the four companies decided to cap inhaler

costs at $35 each.

"Despite all that we have accomplished up to now, it is not

enough. Much, much more needs to be done," Sanders said of

lowering prescription drug costs. "This is an issue that we

must, must get a handle on."

The Biden administration has sought to crack down on what it

calls falsely claimed patents in an effort to increase

competition to lower inhaler costs.

The president also highlighted successful efforts included

in 2022's Inflation Reduction Act that placed a $35 cap on

insulin. He also pushed to increase the number of Medicare drugs

the federal government can negotiate with pharmaceutical

companies from 10 to 50.

Part of 2022's Inflation Reduction Act allows Medicare to

negotiate prices for prescription drugs that had been

particularly expensive for the federal healthcare insurance

program that covers millions of Americans aged 65 and older, as

well as the disabled.

Sanders is one of three independents in the Senate but

caucuses with the Democrats.