This article only represents the author's own views.
On May 12, U.S. president Donald Trump dropped a bomb on the global pharmaceutical market with his latest executive order aimed at bringing down drug prices, sending shockwaves through global stock markets. But while many companies later recovered some ground, Chinese innovative drug makers didn’t fare quite as well, signaling concerns about their plans to expand abroad in search of fatter margins than they get at home.
Trump’s executive order that created the waves insisted that U.S. patients are entitled to Most Favored Nation (MFN) pricing for their drugs, meaning the lowest prices available in developed countries. He instructed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish direct-sales channels to cut out middlemen that tend to raise prices, and consider importing drugs directly from lower-priced developed markets. His order said HHS will send MFN target prices to pharmaceutical manufacturers within 30 days and will implement mandatory MFN pricing if manufacturers do not adjust prices themselves.