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Lower US drug prices under Trump are inevitable, Sandoz

CEO says

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Drugmakers should not hike European prices in response, he

says

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Middlemen distort US drug prices, Sandoz CEO Saynor says

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White House meeting with generic firms over antibiotic

supply

risks

By Maggie Fick

LONDON, April 28 (Reuters) - The chief executive of

generic drugmaker Sandoz said a proposal by the CEOs of

Novartis and Sanofi to introduce a

Europe-wide list price for new medicines is "deeply flawed" and

would not solve global pricing inequities.

Richard Saynor told Reuters that the proposal - outlined in

a letter to the Financial Times last week - ignores structural

drivers of high drug prices in the United States.

"It made me smile, made me laugh," Saynor said of the

proposal, adding that he thinks the Trump administration will

succeed in driving down prices for brand-name medicines. But he

said big pharmaceutical companies should not respond by hiking

prices in Europe, which would hurt patient access.

Saynor argued that U.S. patients have long borne a

disproportionate share of costs for innovative medicines, while

large drugmakers maintain high margins.

He cited Amgen's ( AMGN ) autoimmune treatment Enbrel, which

costs $70,000 per patient per year in the U.S., compared with

$7,000 in Europe.

Earlier this month, Sandoz filed a U.S. antitrust lawsuit

against Amgen ( AMGN ), alleging the company blocked biosimilar

competition, including Sandoz's own version. Biosimilars are

near-identical copies of complex biologic drugs whose patents

have expired.

Saynor said some form of U.S. price reform is inevitable,

pointing to President Donald Trump's stalled plan to link drug

prices to international benchmarks during his first term.

Reuters reported last week that the Trump administration is

again weighing such a move.

Saynor said the structure of the U.S. healthcare system -

including pharmacy benefit managers - inflates prices and he

likened PBMs to "leeches sucking value out of healthcare".

Generic drugs account for more than 90% of prescriptions

filled in the U.S. but just 17% of spending, according to the

Association for Accessible Medicines, the main generic medicines

trade body. Saynor said greater use of generic and biosimilar

drugs could help fund access to genuine innovation, rather than

sustaining high prices for older, patent-protected medicines.

Swiss-headquartered Sandoz, which spun off from Novartis in

2023, is one of the world's largest makers of generic and

biosimilar drugs. The company sells anti-infectives and generic

narcotics for hospital use in the United States.

Saynor said Sandoz's North America President Keren Haruvi,

who also chairs the AAM, has been meeting with White House

officials nearly every week to discuss pharmaceutical imports

and U.S. reliance on foreign drug production.

"They have some really tough choices to make about security

of supply ... and I'm quite optimistic these are the right

conversations to have ... about accessibility, affordability,"

he said.

He warned that if significant tariffs are imposed, Sandoz

could be forced to withdraw some products from the U.S. market.