BlinkRx, which recently launched a program to help pharmas set up direct-to-consumer drug sales within a few weeks, is set to host a summit that has some drugmakers worried about the suggestion of a mutually beneficial relationship between BlinkRx and the Trump administration, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Key to those concerns is the fact that Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, sits on the board of BlinkRx.
According to Tuesday’s WSJ report, the December “Future of Pharmaceuticals” summit will convene “the country’s top drugmakers,” as well as Trump Jr. and “senior Trump administration officials that regulate the pharmaceutical industry.”
Invitees include representatives of Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Amgen, WSJ reports,. The event schedule reportedly touts meetings with the likes of Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, M.D., and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D.
Pharma representatives who received the invite have reportedly expressed “consternation” over concerns that the event’s host and guest list imply the White House wants drugmakers to work with BlinkRx.
BlinkRx did not immediately respond to Fierce Pharma Marketing’s request for comment on the report. The company told WSJ that “no company will be pitching any services” at the summit, while Trump Jr. told the outlet its report represented an “innuendo smear.”
The launch of BlinkRx’s “Operation Access Now” program in August sparked similar questions, as it came just a few days after the president sent letters to several Big Pharma CEOs ordering them to lower drug prices, including by introducing more DTC options. At the time, the company told Bloomberg that it “did not speak to anyone at any level of government about the order” and that it hadn’t discussed the order with anyone on its board, including Trump Jr., adding, “To claim that Blink will benefit from this order is premature and almost certainly inaccurate.”
As WSJ noted in this week’s report, BlinkRx could indeed benefit from the increase in DTC drug sales happening across the industry. In recent weeks, drugmakers including Amgen, AstraZeneca, and Bristol Myers Squibb have complied with Trump’s request and launched DTC platforms with sizable cash discounts on certain meds. It’s unclear how many, if any, have used BlinkRx’s services to launch their programs.
Last week, the White House announced that it will launch a new website early next year, dubbed TrumpRx, that will direct patients searching for specific medicines toward applicable DTC offerings from the meds’ makers.
The WSJ reports that before the administration unveiled TrumpRx, “a BlinkRx representative told one drug company that BlinkRx could be involved with running the site,” though the company wasn’t mentioned in the eventual announcement.
A White House spokesperson pushed back on the suggestion of any special relationship with BlinkRx, telling WSJ, “As long as drugmakers deliver cost savings for American patients through TrumpRx, how they do so is irrelevant.”
In a release following Tuesday’s WSJ report, nonpartisan watchdog organization Accountable.US joined other critics in arguing that TrumpRx and the administration’s push for more DTC offerings from pharmas won’t actually meaningfully lower drug prices for most Americans.
In a statement, the organization's Executive Director, Tony Carrk, described the setup as "presidential self-dealing at its most craven.”