It comes amid a broader crackdown on the ACA exchanges as the Trump administration continues its efforts to identify “fraud, waste and abuse” in federal programs.
Category: Trump
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Trump administration plans new probe into global drug pricing
- Updated On Oct 22, 2025 at 03:12 PM IST
- Read by 100 Professionals
Bengaluru: President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing a new probe into drug pricing practices among U.S. trading partners, a move that would lay the ground for fresh tariffs, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
The imminent investigation would consider whether U.S. trading partners are underpaying for drugs, the report said, adding that the investigation would come under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.
U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations.
In late September, Trump said the U.S. would impose a 100% tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products, unless a pharmaceutical company is building a manufacturing plant in the United States.
Trump has not followed through on the threat as he presses pharmaceutical companies to lower U.S. drug prices.
Earlier this year, Trump sent letters to the leaders of 17 major pharmaceutical companies outlining how they should slash U.S. prescription drug prices to match those paid abroad.
(Reporting by Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
- Published On Oct 22, 2025 at 03:02 PM IST
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Trump administration proposes cutting FDA budget by 5.5%
- Updated On May 25, 2025 at 07:19 PM IST
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By Ahmed Aboulenein and Mariam Sunny
Washington: The Trump administration is proposing a $6.8 billion budget request for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the 2026 fiscal year, its Commissioner Martin Makary said on Thursday, a cut of around 5.5% from its $7.2 billion budget this year.
The White House had on May 2 proposed reducing U.S. health spending by more than a quarter next year, with the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention facing the brunt of billions of dollars in cuts.
The proposed budget requested $93.8 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services – a cut of $33.3 billion, or 26.2% – from this year’s budget of $127 billion, but did not mention the FDA. Makary’s comments on Thursday were the first official outlining of the agency’s 2026 budget request.
“The Trump administration is proposing a $6.8 billion budget for the FDA,” Makary told the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies at a hearing on the budget.
The FDA in 2025 had a budget of $7.2 billion, including $3.5 billion in user fees, payments made by pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to fund the staff resources needed to review their products quickly, conduct inspections, and ensure the safety of clinical trials.
Makary said that nearly 1,900 people were laid off at the FDA as part of a massive restructuring of federal health agencies under Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to align with President Donald Trump’s goal of dramatically shrinking the federal government.
No scientific reviewer or inspector was cut as a part of the reduction in force, he added. Democratic senators pushed back, asking Makary about media reports of the FDA firing and later rehiring scientists. He said the scientists were not fired but rather scheduled for firing before the decision was reversed.
A further 1,200 took early retirement packages and the agency is hiring more scientists to replace them, Makary said.
The staffing changes have not impacted approval schedules and the agency is on track to meet its treatment review targets under the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, known as PDUFA, he said. (Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Mariam Sunny in Bangalore; Editing by Mark Porter, Conor Humphries and Aurora Ellis)
- Published On May 25, 2025 at 06:11 PM IST
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