In case you have any doubts about Trump’s impact on the drug pricing debate …

The Ways and Means Committee put out a new report yesterday making the case for Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing plan, namely the provisions that would tie what Americans pay for drugs to what six other countries pay … nearly a year after the Trump administration put out an eerily similar report. It’s the latest sign that Trump’s complaints about the high prices drug makers charge Americans has been thoroughly co-opted by Democrats. 

Here’s a few interesting tidbits you may have missed:  

• Denmark gets some darn good deals on drugs. That country had the lowest per capita spending on drugs of the 12 countries staffers compared. They spend $318 per capita on drugs versus the $1,220 Americans spend in a year.

• Perhaps lawmakers should start talking more about Stelara. That plaque psoriasis drug, manufactured by Janssen, was the most expensive drug, per dose, of the 79 drugs included in the report. It costs $16,597.86 per dose, according to the report, which is 3.5 to 6.75 more than other counties pay. France gets the best deal on that drug. It pays $2,455.79 per dose, according to the report.
• PhRMA: call your European colleagues. PhRMA, the U.S.-based drug lobby, has been uncompromising in its opposition to tying what the U.S. pays to what other countries pay. But tucked into Monday’s report is an interesting set of guiding principles for setting up reference pricing systems from the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, aka the European version of PhRMA — which shares nearly all the same members as PhRMA. Now the EFPIA obviously operates in a different environment: It operates in countries that have already set up these systems, so it has an interest in making them as industry-friendly as possible. But this author couldn’t help but snicker when seeing the different rhetoric these same companies adopt when operating in different markets.