Donald Trump has a habit of hiring corporate insiders to fight for businesses rather than Americans. Now, he has done it again. This time, though, 45 has created a big problem.
The president swore in Alex Azar, 50, former president of the U.S. division of pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly & Co. as secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The country is in the middle of an opioid epidemic, so Trump’s choice for this position is particularly important. The man in the Oval Office quipped about the prices of drugs, according to CNBC:
‘It’s going to come rocketing down.’
Azar has a history of overseeing repeated prescription price increases at Eli Lilly. That did not seem to bother Trump as he said:
‘We have to get the prices of prescription drugs way down, and unravel the tangled web of special interests that are driving prices up for medicine, and are really hurting patients. You look at other countries they pay a fraction for the exact same drug the exact same pill in an identical box from the same factory costs us much more many times more than it does in other countries. And nobody knows that process better than Alex.’
Trump repeated drug prices three times within mere minutes:
‘I will say this prescription drug prices is going to be one of the big things and whenever I speak to Alex I speak to him about that I think prior to anything else. And I know you can do it. You know the system, you can do it because it’s wrong.’
Azar, a Yale Law graduate, is the first drug-corporation leader to head HHS. He worked for President George W. Bush as general counsel and as deputy secretary. Trump said:
‘In both those roles Alex was outstanding and an incredible public servant. People talk about him to this day. He was instrumental in improving the department’s operations and advancing its emergency response capabilities.’
Trump also wants Azar to deal with the prescription painkiller and illegal opioids:
‘Rolling back regulations that drug up health-care costs.’
Featured Image via Getty Images.
