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A White House meeting with top pharmaceutical executives that President Donald Trump promised for Tuesday is off, five industry sources familiar with discussions told POLITICO. Three said the drug-pricing discussion was canceled because the major drug lobbies, reeling from Friday’s cluster of executive orders on the topic, refused to send any members. Drugmakers and Trump were slated to discuss an executive order, signed Friday but not yet released, that would order health officials to release a plan linking Medicare payments for certain medicines to lower costs paid abroad. The provision, known as a most-favored-nations rule, has been lambasted by the drug industry and some patient groups that say it would curb innovation and reduce drug access. (Owermohle, 7/27)

A spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America did not directly address on Monday whether industry executives are willing to meet with the White House about the executive order. "Right now our industry’s sole focus is figuring out a way to beat COVID-19," the spokesman said. "The president’s plan to import policies from socialized health care systems abroad is disrupting our work and diverting our focus away from those life-saving efforts." (Sullivan, 7/27)

The Wall Street Journal criticized President Trump’s moves on prescription drug pricing in a new editorial, accusing the president of favoring a “me-too Democratic plan.” The newspaper said the proposed price controls could lead to a decline in U.S. drugmakers' spending on research and development and faulted congressional Democrats and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for supporting international drug price indexing. (Budryk, 7/27)