President of the United States Donald Trump On Thursday, he reiterated his assertion that prescription drug prices have been reduced by more than 100%, a mathematically impossible assertion, while defending what he called “different ways” of calculating price reductions.Speaking at an event announcing a deal with drugmaker Regeneron, Trump said his administration had reduced drug costs by “500, 600 percent,” then added that those numbers could also be pegged at “50 or 60 percent,” depending on how the calculations are done. “People understand this better…there are two ways to calculate it,” he said.However, mathematically speaking, while prices can rise by more than 100%, they cannot fall by more than 100% without actually falling to zero or becoming negative, meaning companies must pay consumers to use their products.U.S. Surgeon General Robert F. Kennedy Jr. echoed Trump’s defense, arguing that previous sharp increases in drug prices meant subsequent price cuts could amount to more than a 100% reduction in increases. He gave a hypothetical example of a drug rising from $100 to $600, though analysts pointed out that this represented a 500% increase, not a 600% increase.Kennedy Jr. said of an exchange with Sen. Elizabeth Warren at a congressional hearing: “She said, ‘Mathematically, it’s impossible for the cost of a drug to go down 600 percent.’ “I said, ‘Well, if the price of this drug is $100 and it raises the price to $600, that’s a 600 percent increase. If it drops from 600 to 100, that’s a 600% savings, right? The President used this mathematical tool to illustrate the magnitude of the theft being committed against our country and our people.“However, this comparison is flawed. A move from $100 to $600 is equivalent to a 500% increase (an increase of $500 from the original $100), while a fall back to $100 is equivalent to an 83% decrease, not a 600% decrease, because in both cases the $500 change is measured against a different base value: an increase of $100, a decrease of $600.The comments are coming under scrutiny from lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who says such comments mean drugmakers should pay consumers.Trump also made controversial remarks on other issues during the event. He said the ongoing conflict with Iran actually met his previous forecast of a four- to six-week duration, although the war continued beyond that timeframe. Additionally, he reiterated his long-standing claim that attendance at the 2017 inauguration could rival or exceed that of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech — a comparison widely disputed by existing crowd estimates.
