The Drug-Price Surrender to China
President Trump's executive order on most-favored-nation drug pricing proposes to tie U.S. prices to the lowest prices paid by other wealthy countries. At first glance, it seems reasonable. Who doesn't want to pay less at the pharmacy? But the policy misunderstands global pharmaceutical markets and our own benefit system. It risks giving Beijing exactly what it wants: the collapse of America's innovation edge in medicine, and perhaps one of America's remaining bastions of industrial leadership.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
3 minutes ago
- USA Today
Paramount agrees to pay $16M to settle Trump lawsuit over '60 Minutes' interview
NEW YORK - CBS parent company Paramount on July 1 settled a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump over an interview broadcast in October, the latest concession by a media company to a president who has targeted outlets over what he describes as false or misleading coverage. Paramount said it would pay $16 million to settle the suit, with the money allocated to Trump's future presidential library, and not paid to Trump "directly or indirectly." "The settlement does not include a statement of apology or regret," the company statement added. Trump filed a $10-billion lawsuit against CBS in October, alleging the network deceptively edited an interview that aired on its "60 Minutes" news program with then-vice president and presidential candidate Kamala Harris to "tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party" in the election. In an amended complaint filed in February, Trump bumped his claim for damages to $20 billion. CBS aired two versions of the Harris interview in which she appears to give different answers to the same question about the Israel-Hamas war, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Texas. CBS previously said the lawsuit was "completely without merit" and had asked a judge to dismiss the case. The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment. Edward A Paltzik, a lawyer representing Trump in the civil suit, could not be immediately reached for comment. A spokesperson for Paramount Chair Shari Redstone was similarly unavailable for comment. The case entered mediation in April. Trump alleged CBS's editing of the interview violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, which makes it illegal to use false, misleading, or deceptive acts in commerce. Media advocacy groups said Trump's novel use of such laws against news outlets could be a way of circumventing legal protections for the press, which can only be held liable for defamation against public figures if they say something they knew or should have known was false. The settlement comes as Paramount prepares for an $8.4-billion merger with Skydance Media, which will require approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. On the campaign trail last year, Trump threatened to revoke CBS's broadcasting license if elected. He has repeatedly lashed out against the news media, often casting unfavorable coverage as "fake news." The Paramount settlement follows a decision by Walt Disney-owned ABC News to settle a defamation case brought by Trump. As part of that settlement, which was made public on December 14, the network donated $15 million to Trump's presidential library and publicly apologized for comments by anchor George Stephanopoulos, who inaccurately said Trump had been found liable for rape. It also follows a second settlement, by Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms, which on January 29 said it had agreed to pay about $25 million to settle a lawsuit by Trump over the company's suspension of his accounts after the January 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol. Why Trump sued CBS: What to know about complaint dating back to Kamala Harris interview Trump has vowed to pursue more claims against the media. On December 17, he filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register newspaper and its former top pollster over its poll published on November 2 that showed Harris leading Trump by three percentage points in Iowa. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and an order barring the Des Moines Register from engaging in "ongoing deceptive and misleading acts and practices" related to polling. A Des Moines Register representative said the organization stands by its reporting and that the lawsuit was without merit. On June 30, Trump dropped the federal lawsuit and refiled it in an Iowa state court. (Reporting by Helen Coster and Jack Queen in New York, Kanjyik Ghosh and Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Rod Nickel and Kate Mayberry)
Washington Post
8 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Daughter of assassinated civil rights leader sees painful echoes of political violence in America
Jackson, Miss. — More than 60 years after a white supremacist assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers, his daughter still sees the same strain of political violence at work in American society. 'It's painful,' said Reena Evers-Everette. 'It's very painful.' Evers-Everette was 8 years old when her father, a field secretary for the NAACP, was shot to death in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi.
CBS News
11 minutes ago
- CBS News
Paramount, President Trump reach $16 million settlement over "60 Minutes" lawsuit
Paramount will settle President Trump's lawsuit over a "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris for $16 million, the company announced late Tuesday. CBS News' parent company worked with a mediator to resolve the lawsuit. Under the agreement, $16 million will be allocated to Mr. Trump's future presidential library and the plaintiffs' fees and costs. Neither Mr. Trump nor his co-plantiff, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, will be directly paid as part of the settlement. The settlement did not include an apology. Paramount also agreed that "60 Minutes" will release transcripts of interviews with presidential candidates in the future, "subject to redactions as required for legal or national security concerns," the statement said. Mr. Trump's lawsuit, filed last October when he was still a candidate for president, was widely viewed as an attack on the First Amendment. He took issue with CBS News airing two different portions of Harris' response to a question about the Middle East, one in an early excerpt on "Face the Nation" and the other on the full broadcast of "60 Minutes." The lawsuit was filed in Amarillo, Texas, a portion of a federal district court where the sole judge is a 2019 Trump appointee, and it was based on a state consumer protection law that is intended to prevent advertisers from misleading the public about a product being sold. CBS News is not headquartered in Texas, nor did the interview take place there. He initially sought $10 billion in damages when he filed suit last October but upped his demand to $20 billion in February after adding a federal claim alleging false advertising and unfair competition. Jackson, a Texas Republican, joined Mr. Trump as a plaintiff in the amended complaint. Paramount has maintained that the lawsuit was completely without merit and that "60 Minutes" followed a standard editing process. The show's executive producer, Bill Owens, stood behind the show's interview and said he would not apologize. He announced in April that he would depart the network, citing a loss of editorial independence. Weeks later, Wendy McMahon, who served as president and CEO of CBS News and Stations and CBS Media Ventures, announced she was also departing. "It's become clear that the company and I do not agree on a path forward," she wrote in a note to staffers. First Amendment scholars and constitutional experts largely viewed the lawsuit as a frivolous misapplication of the law. Geoffrey R. Stone, a First Amendment scholar and law professor at the University of Chicago, explained, "That statute is about sales — a salesperson can be held liable for stating that a product has certain positive effects when he knows it doesn't. But CBS is not engaged in advertising here." Constitutional law expert and Harvard professor Noah Feldman called the case an "outrageous violation of First Amendment principles." Politicians had also spoken out about the suit, urging Paramount Global Chair Shari Redstone not to settle. The day after McMahon announced her departure, Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden sent a letter to Redstone raising concerns that efforts to settle with Mr. Trump would amount to bribery. Redstone had recused herself from settlement talks. In an April Truth Social post, Mr. Trump said he was "honored" to be suing CBS and Paramount. He also urged Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr to "impose the maximum fines and punishment" against CBS in connection with a news distortion complaint, which was filed by a conservative group over the same Harris interview. Outgoing FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed the complaint in January before former President Biden's term ended, but Carr reopened it days after Mr. Trump took office and appointed him to the role. Back in February, CBS complied with an FCC inquiry to hand over the transcript and videos from the Harris interview, simultaneously releasing those files to the public. CBS sought dismissal of the FCC complaint in a March filing, writing, "The Complaint filed against CBS for 'news distortion' envisions a less free world in which the federal government becomes a roving censor — one that second guesses and even punishes specific editorial decisions that are an essential part of producing news programming." The news distortion complaint remains open and under investigation. The FCC's approval is necessary for Paramount's $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media to move ahead, and the agency didn't make a decision on the transaction by the informal 180-day deadline to review mergers, which passed in May. Carr said Thursday that the FCC was still reviewing the transaction. If completed, the Paramount-Skydance merger will cap off a long, turbulent sales process that attracted multiple potential bidders. Talks between Skydance and Paramount's corporate parent, National Amusements, were briefly called off before the sides resumed negotiations and clinched a deal in July 2024.
