Trump: ‘Drug industry getting away with murder’

NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump took on health care and biotechnology companies during his Wednesday press conference.

"We have to get our drug industry coming back. The drug industry has been disastrous, they're leaving left and right. They supply our drugs but they don't make them here, to a large extent," Trump said in the press conference. "And the other thing we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry because they're getting away with murder.”

"We're the largest buyers of drugs but we don't bid properly," Trump added.

Trump’s comments led a host of pharmaceutical and biotech stocks to fall during Wednesday afternoon trade. The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology exchange trade fund traded down nearly 3% for example.

Also Wednesday, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association responded to Trump’s comments. 

"We understand the President-Elect's concerns about drug prices. Patients and drug purchasers like the federal government, health systems, employers and others, rely on access to more affordable medicines," GPhA said. "Study after study demonstrates that generic medicines drive down drug costs through competition. Still, more can be done to increase competition and we look forward to working with the new Administration to reduce the backlog of generic drug applications at FDA, and on initiatives that bring more generic and biosimilar products to the market. Our recommendations to the Trump administration can be found here and our policy prescriptions to increase pharmaceutical competition are available at www.RxSolutions.us."