The pharmaceutical industry can only create new drugs because the government pays for the initial research with our tax dollars. That's how Big Pharma launders public money into private profits.

High drug prices are the product of government policy — policies that give drug companies patent monopolies, but don’t require they sell medications at fair prices.

Donald Trump could stop the price gouging by ordering the federal government to break those monopolies around any drug at any time. It could save lives. The Trump administration just needs the will to do it, and to pay the company some compensation — they can target that to ensure that they get a fair return, but not more.

The government also has special rights when it funds inventions – and we are funding a lot of coronavirus research, as always happens in a public health crisis. Trump could demand a free vaccine and treatment for every American, and make that a condition in grants — or just promise to use his legal rights to ensure affordable prices. But he won’t.

Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jan Schakowsky have introduced the COVID-19 Emergency Manufacturing Act to ensure any and all treatments and vaccines are available at a fair price to every American.