Big Pharma is panicking. The Trump administration’s probe into international pharmaceutical pricing and its executive order to reduce the cost of drugs by up to 80 percent come as both President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urge Americans to put fitness and lifestyle ahead of popping pills.
Big Pharma is responsible for setting the price of drugs. So, in order to maintain this power, it’s no wonder the industry has promised to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure here in the U.S. It also pledged to provide financial assistance to millions of patients who have been “failed by a broken health insurance system” and to launch a new consumer-focused website that allows Americans to buy drugs directly from manufacturers.
It all sounds good. But it’s really smoke and mirrors to keep Americans from noticing that Big Pharma has spent decades creating drug dependency that it has abused by dramatically increasing prices. In 2022 alone, Americans poured $600 billion into Big Pharma’s pockets, with prices that were several times more than those charged in other countries.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the increase in the cost of prescription drugs has greatly outstripped the pace of inflation and wage growth. Between 1975 and 2023, the price of prescription drugs grew 450 percent, three times more than inflation.
Drug companies claim that the increase is substantially due to higher research and development costs, but this is often merely marketing in disguise. A recent study found that Big Pharma spends nearly two-thirds more on marketing than on R&D. Big Pharma is making more money than ever. Revenues and profits reached record levels in 2023 and especially 2024, surpassing pre-pandemic highs.
Big Pharma gets away with these abuses by spreading the prices around. Around 3.4 million kids take ADHD drugs such as Ritalin. That means that one in 20 children between three and 17 is on psychiatric medication. An estimated 20 million-plus Americans use Metformin, which treats and prevents Type 2 diabetes — a chronic condition that is largely preventable. Rep. David Schweikert, R-AZ-01, has spent years railing about how Type 2 diabetes can be easily treated by emphasizing prevention, exercise and better diet.
Figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also show that about 125 million opioid prescriptions were dispensed to American patients in 2023. That same year, 8.6 million Americans misused those drugs — two-thirds of them trying to relieve physical pain.
The fact is that for all of the illnesses and types of pain that need to be treated with the most powerful drugs on the market, there are many more for which lifestyle choices can move the needle. Let’s play that out for the issue of chronic pain, which 60 million Americans reported as a significant impact on their lives. Many of these people rely on a steady supply of addiction-risky painkillers instead of lifestyle changes that research shows can make a big difference.
When medical researchers analyzed data from the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program, they found that higher levels of physical activity reduced the risk of neck, back and hip pain. They also cited “compelling” evidence that daily walking reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and other chronic conditions.
Plus, better nutrition helps to manage, halt and even reverse chronic illnesses such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and — perhaps most obviously — obesity. Healthier choices can lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar levels, reducing dependence on medication and helping prevent new conditions and manage existing illnesses.
Rates of overweight and obesity have more than doubled over the past three decades. According to the CDC, approximately 41.9 percent of U.S. adults ages 20 and older are obese. This is predicted to rise to about 64 percent by 2050.
The Trump administration knows this. Earlier this year, the president reinstated the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools, which the Obama administration had scrapped in 2012. Kennedy has promised to “restore public trust” in the CDC by eliminating “bureaucratic inertia, politicized science and mission creep.” He is leading a cross-governmental initiative to tackle a chronic disease “epidemic” driven by ultra-processed foods — a crucial pillar of the Make America Healthy Again plan. And Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said it was “completely unacceptable to see fat generals in the Pentagon” as he mandated daily physical training for all active service members, backed up by fitness tests twice a year.
Best of all, this can reduce the prices of drugs because people will spend less, so Big Pharma will have to respond to fewer sales by becoming more competitive instead of price gouging. That’s what happens when consumers and governments get smarter — companies have to respond favorably instead of for their own interests.
Big Pharma will, of course, point out that it’s sacrificing profit to meet the Trump administration’s demands. That’s fine with me. It’s long past time that Big Pharma is held accountable not just for the obvious abuses like the opioid epidemic, but the micro-epidemics in millions of households across the country.
America’s decades of drug addiction are slowly coming to a halt, as parents and medical professionals alike partner to put lifestyle ahead of pill Band-Aids. But there’s a long way to go, as just one in four Americans gets the recommended amount of exercise to stay healthy.
This is not something to be ashamed of; we all face challenges with fits and starts on the path to success. The Trump administration deserves credit for taking a multi-pronged approach to Big Pharma, and refusing to allow the industry to shape the narrative. Yes, keep drug prices low. But also help us to relearn that we don’t need drugs as much as we think we do. A run a day keeps the opioids away.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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