By Bhanvi Satija and Christy Santhosh
(Reuters) -Talks with the Trump administration about lowering U.S. drug prices have so far not provided clarity on when and how reduced prices will be implemented, top executives from Eli Lilly and Merck said at an industry conference on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month directing drugmakers to lower the prices of their medicines to align with what other countries pay.
According to the order, the administration was to set “most favored nation” price targets within 30 days. The Department of Health and Human Services has said it expects drugmakers in the U.S. to set prices for their products at the lowest price paid by other high-income countries.
Lilly’s chief financial officer, Lucas Montarce, said that it was not clear when a resolution on the pricing reform would be achieved.
“It’s hard to make any assumption about when, but they haven’t shared with us any details at this time,” said Montarce at the Goldman Sachs’ Healthcare Conference.
On Monday, Pfizer’s chief executive Albert Bourla had said that the meetings with the Trump administration were focused on high-level ideas and not “digging into the substance.”
“Conversations are ongoing. No clarity yet on where it’s going to go,” said Merck’s CEO Robert Davis.
Davis added that Merck has discussed how to share the cost of drug innovation, both in the United States and other countries, with the administration.
“But how does that all translate into an actionable plan in the near term? There’s still a lot of dialog happening, so that’s not as clear,” he said.
Lilly and Merck executives said that any pricing reforms would require regulatory changes or government-to-government actions.
AbbVie’s CEO also said that there was a “long way to go” before an agreement would be reached on the pricing reform.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija, Christy Santhosh and Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
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