Trump and Kennedy doubled their stance on how prescription drug costs had been decreased to hundreds of per cent, which is mathematically impossible and has led to further investigation from members of parliament as well as fact checkers.
While answering the queries put forth to him at the hearing by Senator Warren from Massachusetts during an appearance he made at the Senate Finance Committee.
Kennedy was asked why the drugs on the TrumpRx website offered discounts as high as 600%, saying that they would essentially mean that companies are now paying people for taking drugs.
Instead of correcting the mistake, Kennedy gave a justification of his statement.
Kennedy said that the President calculates percentages in a totally different way and that a reduction from 600 dollars to 10 dollars was 600%.
It has nothing to do with mathematics and even the most liberal calculation says it is 98%. A discount can never reach more than 100%, because then it would become free of cost.
The next day, while addressing the press inside the Oval Office, Kennedy returned to his previous comments about percentages on his own accord.
The senator remarked that while a hike from $100 to $600 in the price of a drug amounts to a sixfold or 600% increase, a decrease from $600 to $100 should likewise be considered a savings.
A mathematical method of such a nature does not exist. Although it is possible for prices to increase more than once there cannot be a price decrease by a number larger than one as it will result in negative pricing.
Even Trump came to the aid of his campaign, recognizing that although he had mentioned reductions of “500%, 600%,” he often makes use of “50%, 60%.”
This type of calculation, Trump explained, represents a different way of calculating. It was an explanation Trump has made consistently after unveiling his drug pricing plan through TrumpRx earlier this year.
It came at the expense of what the White House intended to be an important statement regarding its drug pricing policy.
The new Regeneron deal is the 17th most favored nations’ pact made with a big pharmaceutical company.
They are firms that represent 86% of the total branded drug market.
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According to the agreement, Regeneron agreed to reduce the cost of its cholesterol medicine, Praluent, from $537 to $225 for individuals buying under TrumpRX and also committed to investing $27 billion in research and development in America by 2029.
This is not the only dubious number thrown in during the discussion that caught the eye of many people.
There is another one where he claimed the conflict with Iran, which began on 28 February and had already gone past seven and a half weeks, was still within the predicted period of four to six weeks.
Another one that has always come up in every speech he makes since he was inaugurated was the issue of the size of his inaugural gathering.
While the drug pricing agreements proposed by the administration have been questioned by the Democratic members regarding the effectiveness of such agreements for the people.
