Cigna and CVS shares fall as Trump targets middlemen in sweeping executive order against Big Pharma

President Trump took aim at Big Pharma on Monday by signing an executive order meant to slash Americans’ prescription drug prices by up to 90% — sparking a selloff in companies he labeled as “middlemen.” “What’s been happening is, we’ve been subsidizing other countries throughout the world,” Trump explained at a White House signing ceremony, calling the action one of his “most important orders.”“Some prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices will be reduced almost immediately by 50 to 80 to 90%,” he added.The policy is a revival of Trump’s signature “most favored nation” drive from his first term, with a new push to get foreign countries to take on more of the research and development (R&D) costs that experts say America has disproportionately shouldered.Trump also reiterated his long-standing criticism of companies that own pharmacy benefit managers, like CVS and Cigna, for what he described as their role in distorting drug pricing.“I would cut out the middlemen,” Trump said.“Everybody should equalize.Everybody should pay the same price.”His remarks sent shares of Cigna, one of the nation’s five largest health insurers, plunging nearly 6%, while drugstore giant CVS Health, parent company of Aetna, sank more than 3%.UnitedHealth Group, which owns OptumRx, dipped less than 1%.The US pays the highest prices for prescription drugs, often nearly three times more than other developed nations.

The order gives drugmakers 30 days to lower the prices of their medicines to align with what other countries pay.It directs US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to “take all appropriate action against unreasonable and discriminatory policies in foreign countries that suppress drug prices abroad,” White House officials said.After 30 days, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.

Kennedy Jr.will “set clear targets for price reductions across all markets” in the US and open a “r...