upside. charles: okay. i love when you give us great stock ideas, rob. you are one of the best, my friend. have a great weekend. we appreciate it. now over to jackie deangelis filling in for liz claman. jackie: thank you so much, charles. happy friday, everyone. breaking news, at any minute we are expecting president trump to deliver remarks at the white house about lowering drug prices. the president is scheduled to make an announcement and sign an executive order in the south court auditorium. as soon as the president speaks we will take you there live. we do have the pictures of the white house up right now. meanwhile, we are watching the markets closely because they are wrapping up the week to the down side as tensions with china and increasing coronavirus cases put a damper on the mood, let's just say. the dow, s&p 500 and nasdaq all down for the second straight day. it's the first back-to-back losses for the tech-heavy nasdaq since may 13th. take a look there. the dow, down 184 points.

the nasdaq off 95. the dow off its session lows but still taking a hit today. the uncertainty boosting gold prices above $1900 an ounce. take a look at gold as well. $1900. okay. we will also take a look at johnson & johnson, merck, fiedzer and fiedz pfizer and regeneron, on pins and needles awaiting the president's announcement. let's go straight to edward lawrence for a preview of what we are expecting to hear. reporter: exactly, the president signing any minute an executive order that in one way will get departments the look at ways they can further reduce drug prices going forward. also, we have heard it may include the provision that connects the prices the u.s. pays with foreign prices. the prices drug companies charge foreign countries. that is the deal exactly the

president worked out between gilead in the united states where the united states will basically buy the entire supply of remdesivir. remdesivir is a drug that helps coronavirus patients. the president puitched a simila idea before the midterm election in 2018. it stalled in congress. but today the white house press secretary pointed to that and listed some accomplishments so far. listen. >> he signed legislation ending the gag clauses that stopped pharmacists from informing patients about lower drug prices and the average basic premiums for medicare part d prescription drug plans had actually fallen by 13.5% since 2017. he's done a lot already but more to come this afternoon actually. reporter: in addition, you will likely hear more at the event about regulations that have been changed in order to get more generic drugs on the market. that having the effect of lowering the cost of the drugs that are currently on the market. regardless of what's signed today it may be difficult to make changes very quickly

through an executive order. that's because there are regulatory processes that have to go through after the president signs this on paper so it could take awhile for any of these changes to take effect. back to you. jackie: edward lawrence, thank you, as always. we will take you right back to the white house as soon as this event begins. first to today's biggest movers. we are watching intel. it's the biggest drag on the dow today, plummeting more than 16% after announcing that it's going to be delaying one of its chip products until late 2022 or early 2023. that's due to a defect mode. while intel did report strong earnings, seven analysts downgraded the tech titan post-earnings with three dropping it to a hold and four calling it a sell. one of the clear winners from intel's product delay is amd, advanced micro devices. it's topping the s&p 500, popping today more than 16%.

while there is a broader selloff in the semiconductor space today, due to these tensions with china, amd certainly bucking the trend there. take a look at that chart. boston beer raising a toast after reporting impressive second quarter earnings and forecasting full year profits above estimates. the maker of sam adams crediting the unexpected doubling of profit on the increase in demand for truly hard seltzers and twisted tea brands. shares of that company up more than 23% today. tesla is back in the red as geopolitical tensions put a strain on the ev giant. this is coming after tesla announced that it has picked austin for its billion dollar auto factory that's going to employ 5,000 people. president trump even tweeting his approval. great job by elon musk in agreeing to build in texas what is expected to be the largest auto plant anywhere in the world. he kept his word to me, texas

and tesla are big winners. made in the usa. let's get straight to the floor show. we've got john gagliardi and phil flynn with us. guys, great to see you on this friday afternoon as we finish out the final hour of trade. we are seeing the markets drop again with the nasdaq doing its first back-to-back loss since early may, thanks to some of these tensions with china. the question right now is what are you watching and what do you think potentially could happen if this already fragile situation increases and those tensions heighten? >> well, i'm always looking for the strengths so to me, there still has been the nasdaq 100 of all major indexes followed by the s&p and then the dow. those titans of industry, we've now got tesla in the top ten of the nasdaq 100 as a new entrant. we will see a lot of turnover in names there as this new economy

rolls out and it is the new wave of the future. jackie: phil, let me ask you about earnings season. s&p 500 companies are seeing their profits cut by 47% was the last statistic i saw. this is all as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. as these earnings come out, yes, the estimates have been adjusted and some companies are beating, but they are not really beating, when you think about the big picture here. is it really the tensions with china right now, or is it earnings season and worries about the recovery, worries about the spike in coronavirus cases, and that this can go on longer than expected? listen, the president himself said it's going to get worse before it gets better. >> you are absolutely right. i think it's a combination of all those things. it's really disturbing, because if you look at the way that the economy has been recovering around the globe, it's been impressive. as bad as we have been talking about the coronavirus, the

comeback has really been the story. i look at the data that came out of europe this morning, when you look at manufacturing and service sectors, you know, in germany, in the uk, across the eu, i mean, they blew away expectations. so that was a sign that things are getting back on track. so the worst possible thing that could happen is another coronavirus shutdown or another trade war with china. now, i think we are going to be climbing a wall of worry next week. we've got a lot of earnings, people are nervous, it doesn't help that we are adding this extra risk going into the weekend. having said that, as bad as everybody has been talking about how things were going to be horrible, things haven't been that bad up until this point. so a lot of this is fear. we'll just have to wait to see if the fear turns into reality next week. jackie: john, when you looked at those initial jobless claims and saw them rise for the first time in 15 weeks, does that signal to you that we might have a little bit more of a problem on our hands, you know, with the trend

reversing a little bit? >> yeah, the economy is definitely at a dislocation and we are seeing things like unemployment, the numbers are staggering because this is a once every hundred year event. every hundred years almost to the dot we are in a pandemic. we really have to think of this as something completely different. the way that the stock market is reacting, it's saying that this is going to change because the market has always been a leading economic indicator. if you ever want the truth, you always look to the market as leading the way. the market is saying tech at all-time highs, s&p about 5% away and the dow has to do a little catching up. jackie: well, you actually bring up a great point there. let me follow on that. is part of it just the fact that stocks continue to move so far, so fast and you've got investors saying let me take some profits off the table here because uncertainty is back and there are a couple things we need to worry about? >> yeah. a lot of this selloff will be

s sector rotation. sector rotation is the life blood of market. day after day we saw the nasdaq sell off 1% and the dow would only sell off half a percent or be positive. as this happens, we are going to see those other indexes catch up, because there are still plenty of opportunities there. we might start to see going from growth into value. value has been underestimated for 20 years. if we know anything about markets, every dog has its day. jackie: yes, it does. john and phil, thank you. i could go on and on with you guys. unfortunately, we have to move on. i do want to check the big board here, see where we stand at this hour. we are seeing the dow down 151 points, off the session lows. but of course, we are still waiting for president trump's remarks on lowering drug prices. we will take you straight to the white house as soon as it begins. plus, brooks brothers attracting some well-known buyers. up next, charlie gasparino breaks it all down.

it's the next big deal in retail. that's next on "the claman countdown." businesses are starting to bounce back. but what if you could do better than that? like adapt. discover. deliver. in new ways. to new customers. what if you could come back stronger? faster. better. at comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back. but bounce forward. that's why we're helping you stay ahead and adapt with a network you can count on, 24/7 support and flexible solutions that work wherever you are. call or go online today.

jackie: famed retailer brooks brothers may be joining a new family. two well-known names in retail, authentic brands and simon

properties teaming up through their joint venture firm spark group to buy the iconic clothing store brand for $305 million. but could others be ready to swoop in, maybe be waiting in the wings for the bankrupt retailer? charlie gasparino has the details. great to see you. charlie: good to see you. this is from inside the company and from the bidding groups themselves. we should point out this is what's known as a stalking horse bid. it's the initial bid, it sets up for essentially on the price of the company as it's in bankruptcy court. last week after we were first to report brooks brothers is in bankruptcy court, chapter 11, so it's in reorganization, it's not liquidation, and as such, there's a bunch of bidders that are likely to emerge including the current group, the spark group. now, it's a stalking horse bid. it's what the management may prefer but it sets a floor and now others are thinking about jumping in. we do know at least two major

groups are thinking of jumping in. i will give you -- there's one that's been out there, already in the "wall street journal." i will give you one that's not out there. it's a group headed by david jackson of solitaire partners. david jackson was the former head of barney's years ago. he actually sold it, then almost bought it again through a company called solitaire partners. he's teaming up with a private equity executive named jackson isenpresser. they are putting together a management team and a bid for brooks brothers. now, i can't say they are definitely going to do it. i will tell you this. they are speaking with significant middle east sovereign wealth names to make this bid so they are seriously considering it, seriously moving forward. they rls taare also talking to rpeter rizzo, i think he actually worked at barney's as well, long-time veteran of the industry. he will be part of the management group. this is going to be pretty interesting. they are going to be joined,

obviously they will be bidding against the spark group and something called whp global which is preparing to put in a bid, we confirmed that with them. they call the current proceedings early innings so they think this is going to last awhile. i don't think it will. from what i understand, the bankruptcy judge wants this thing done in early august. we are likely to get some feel as to exactly who's bidding by early august and if things go according to where they are going now, you will have the spark group that's in there, with a pretty significant bid. it values the enterprise, with debt and everything, at about $300 million. i think they will put in about $100 million and they are going to keep a significant u.s. footprint in there. something like, you know, the way i read it, 125 stores. so that's pretty interesting. they are not going to close down all the brooks brothers you see all over the place. they may have dloto close down

some, there has to be consolidation. that's where it gets interesting. how will david jackson and eisenpresser compete against that, how will whp compete against that. one way to do it is in price. from what i understand, the price they are willing to pay, the equity value of about $150 million, is pretty aggressive. you can't really -- maybe they can't go up too much on price but they may be able to compete, both sides, on u.s. footprint. do you keep all the stores, do you keep more stores, do you keep u.s. factories. that's where this could get really interesting. i think a lot of it will be depending particularly on jackson and eisenpresser's part how much middle east sovereign wealth money they get and that will determine how much of a u.s. footprint they can keep, then they will make their bid and it will be up to the bankruptcy courts to decide. so early august, the deadline i'm looking at my notes, august 11th, i hear, is the deadline for bids. we should hear something first week in august. the bidding war began for brooks brothers.

you hope they save it. i love brooks brothers clothes. it's an iconic brand that presidents, i think every president for the last -- for awhile now has gotten brooks brothers clothes. it's part of their marketing spin. you know, it's sad that i think obviously, the coronavirus lockdowns hurt retailing, hurt them. but there is interest. people like the brand. jackie: brooks has some other problems, too. it was competing with athleisure and that traditional old school style, it's still popular with some but not really the masses right now, charlie. charlie: well, you know, kids don't understand good clothing. what can i tell you? jackie: of course not. charlie: listen, if it's up to millenials we will walk around in shorts and teeshirts the rest of our lives. jackie: kids don't understand good clothing but charlie gasparino does. nice to see you. have a great weekend. all right. let's check on the big board. the dow is down 175 points.

still off the session lows. moderna is losing a key patent battle to rival arbitos biopharma that could help endanger the development of next-gen vaccines including its current work on a covid-19inoculin. the decision also potentially paving the way for arbitus to make royalty claims on moderna made drugs. the covid candidate was set to begin phase 3 trials next week. shares are falling at this hour, down more than 17% as you can see. controversies over the price for covid-19 vaccines and treatments already swirling all over the place. president trump also set to speak any minute on the state of high drug prices across the usa. we will bring you those comments as soon as they happen live. stay with us. ce today. [indistinct radio chatter]

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is that if you're not wexpecting the shock,t and the markets fall dramatically, you might panic. and in the midst of that panic, you might sell and run to cash. at the very moment, you shouldn't. at the very moment prices... jackie: is time running out for tik tok? chinese parent company bytedance reportedly considering selling off its majority stake in tik

tok and retaining a minority holding in the company. this is in response to threats from the trump administration to ban the app on national security concerns. now, major u.s. businesses and branches of the military have already barred personnel from using tik tok over fears that the company could be sharing sensitive user data with the chinese government. it's unclear if the sale by bytedance would be enough to ease those concerns. let's get over to gerri willis for today's fox business brief. gerri: that's right, movie related stocks under fire. amc pushing back its reopening plans again until mid to late august as box office delays mount. the news coming after disney said it was postponing the release of its highly anticipated live action take on "mulan" with no date attached. viacom cbs' paramount pictures postponing the debut of "top

gun" sequel from december to next summer. and mattel slipping intraday despite a narrower than expected loss and revenue beat in this latest quarter. the toy maker getting a boost from its flagship barbie brand, whose sales, believe it or not, soared 35% amid the lockdowns. and skechers seeing profit taking after being forecast for both its top and bottom line, quintupling online sales while seeing rebounding sales in china. next, biotech company looking to help you reprogram your immune system to fight off coronavirus. the ceo is next. exclusively on "the claman countdown." businesses are starting to bounce back.

but what if you could do better than that? like adapt. discover. deliver. in new ways. to new customers. what if you could come back stronger? faster. better. at comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back. but bounce forward. that's why we're helping you stay ahead and adapt with a network you can count on, 24/7 support and flexible solutions that work wherever you are. call or go online today.

jackie: breaking news. you are looking live inside the south court auditorium, where president trump is expected to make remarks and sign an executive order on lowering drug prices at any moment. right now we are going to go straight to the white house as soon as this happens. meanwhile, a company known for its alzheimer's and cancer treatments could hold the key to treating covid-19. a small san diego biotech firm called immune biois currently working with the fda to begin phase 2 trials on a coronavirus treatment. they say they intend to fight the virus by targeting what they call an atomic bomb of inflammation in the body, and that's really what's behind heart, lung, kidney and brain failures the doctors see in coronavirus patients.

immune bio's goal is to start treating patients next month. joining us now for a fox business exclusive interview is immune bio's ceo, president and acting chief medical officer, dr. raymond teppi. before we get to your company, i want to talk about what we are expecting at the white house today. the president will speak about lowering prescription drug prices. you were a physician, you were a transplant surgeon in your former life as well. your thoughts on what can be done to take prices down and make drugs more affordable for every american citizen. >> yeah, jackie, thank very much. you're right, i practiced as a transplant surgeon for a very long time and we were the original poster children for expensive drugs. that is, the immunosuppresive drugs associated with transplants. i have been involved with this debate for 30 plus years. it's a major problem because

biopharma takes a lot of risk to develop these drugs but ultimately, the proof or the rubber hits the road when you need to get medicine to patients. they have to be affordable. you can't give them away. but there has to be a balance that allows the companies to make -- take these risks, allows physicians to not be afraid to prescribe life-saving drugs and allows patients to take those drugs without compromising their health or their life. jackie: we don't know exactly what the president is going to say, but we are expecting him to possibly suggest sort of standardizing pricing, according to what foreign markets are charging for certain drugs, and there's a lot of people in your industry who would say wait a minute, you are interfering with free markets here. >> well, you know, i believe in free markets. many of these other countries have a single health care

system, in other words, there's a single payer. the government pays all the bills, they pay for the hospital care, they pay for the pharmacy care, so you are dealing with a single shall we say contractor. that's a very different situation in the united states, where you have a competitive system, you have free markets. you know, we are all about free markets. it will be an interesting debate to see where we come ultimately end up. jackie: absolutely. i want to talk to you about your drug specifically, quellar. when i think about health and wellness, i focus a lot on diet, on inflammation. when i'm doing everything right, i always feel like less inflammation is so much better for the body. you are using this drug to work on cancer and alzheimer's. tell us how it could work to help with the reduction of inflammation for patients with covid-19. >> yeah. thank you. you are absolutely right. inflammation is the boogeyman in very many diseases and part of our aging process but in

covid-19, you mentioned it is the atomic bomb and it absolutely is. it's the worst thing that can happen to the patient. the cytokine storm actually ravages the body by turning up the immune system to levels that it just doesn't see. about 20% of patients with covid-19 actually get this shall we say hyper inflammatory state, end up in the hospital and there are three cytokines. one is soluble tnf which we target which are critical in causing all this pathology. interestingly, different from what we thought about let's say three or four months ago at the beginning, the problem is not the lungs. the problem is blood clots. the problems are endothelial cells or the cells that line the blood vessels. when that inflammatory process inflames the blood vessels, they form clots and those clots cause all kinds of problems in the lung, brain, liver, kidneys, you

name it. aus know, when patients with covid-19 get sick, they get sick and they can die. jackie: yeah. no, it's brutal. explain to me sort of the difference between some of the other therapies that companies are working on like regeneron, amgen, all of these patients will be different and may need a little bit of a different treatment but what you are doing is unique. >> let's leave vaccines out of the discussion because that's not what we are talking about. we are talking about the hospitalized patient. you can either go after the virus, try to lower the virus level, that's what gilead is doing, or you can attack the inflammatory, the cytokine storm, which many of us are doing. one of the dirty little secrets of covid-19 is by the time a patient is ill enough to get to the hospital, their immune system is already defeating the virus. the virus is decreasing in their body. but the cost to the immune

system is just going wild. so many of us are targeting the immune system. the problem is most people target the immune system with an anti-inflammatory strategy which is good, but it's also immunosuppressive, which is bad. that means it increases the risk of infection. obviously, this is something i spent years and years doing on the front lines of transplants, when you have a patient with an organ transplant who has a bad life-threatening viral infection, you don't increase the immunosuppression, you try to decrease it so they can get better. one of the advantages of quellar, it's a very potent anti-inflammatory drug targeting soluble tnf, the master cytokine which is the main trigger for endothelial inflammation and blood clots. we believe that it may actually

help their immune response to the virus. jackie: doctor, thank you so much for joining us. good luck with that. we certainly look to more treatments to help deal with this virus and pandemic. great to hear about the work that you guys are doing. meantime, i want to check the big board real quick. the dow hit a new session low moments ago, now down 196 points. we will continue to watch that as we head into the close. coming up, outback steakhouse parent spicing it up in 2q. the numbers whetting investors' appetites into the close. we'll be right back.

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like adapt. discover. deliver. in new ways. to new customers. what if you could come back stronger? faster. better. at comcast business, we want to help you not just bounce back. but bounce forward. that's why we're helping you stay ahead and adapt with a network you can count on, 24/7 support and flexible solutions that work wherever you are. call or go online today.

jackie: welcome back. bloomin' onions sending bloomin' brands higher after a smaller than expected second quarter loss. the outback steak house parent attributing rapid growth in on-site sales during the pandemic with 928 restaurants now open with limited in-store dining. bloomin' down about 51% year to date but today it's up more than 7%. $11.59. all right. the closing bell rings in almost 17 minutes. we are seeing the dow down 181 points. the s&p is off 21. the nasdaq composite, down 97 points. for the week, the major averages are all down. the dow and s&p 500 breaking a three-week winning streak and two down weeks in a row for the nasdaq. you can see it there. lets's go straight to gerri willis for some of this week's biggest movers.

gerri: that's right. let's start with those laggards on the s&p starting with first energy. that company under investigation, it's a bribery investigation in ohio. the company accused of trying to bankroll, bribe, to secure a billion dollar bailout of two of its failing nuclear power plants. you can see they are down 30%. intel down as well, 15% for the week, as the company gave disappointing third quarter guidance. wynn resorts also down 12% for the week, news it's furloughing workers and cutting back midweek operations. more trouble there. on the leader side, s&p leaders, let's take a look at advanced micro-devices, that stock up nearly 25% for the week. why? well, guess what, intel's bad news is amd's good news. intel's chip delay, a good catalyst for amd. you can see it's doing very well there. hca healthcare up 17% on the week.

pardon me. 19%, i believe, after reporting better than expected 2q earni s earnings. they did very well. even though there were negative effects from coronavirus, hca holding its head up. pultegroup, this is the story of housing out there, right, up 15% for the week, reporting better than expected q2 earnings as we see housing do so very well in this market. jackie, back to you. jackie: gerri, thank you for that. we are looking at the closing bell set to ring in 16 minutes' time. as china is going tit for tat ordering the u.s. to close up shop in chengdu in response to the u.s. giving china's houston consulate the boot. our "countdown" closer says don't let the saber rattling on either side of the pacific scare you out of chinese stocks. his top picks from beyond the wall are next. this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights

in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity. to listen, is to hear more than what's being said... and offer the answers that make someone feel truly heard. i understand, let's get started call a dell technologies advisor today. jackie: we will take you straight to washington to listen to president trump. >> -- very big and very important meeting. bear with me. take a little while. but it has to do with a thing called drug pricing and as you know, congress has been working on this for decades and decades and we are now doing something that is going to be incredible for the american public. so today i'm taking a bold and

historic, very dramatic action to reduce the price of prescription drugs for american patients and american seniors. previous administrations did nothing, absolutely nothing, as drug lobbyists, special interests and foreign countries ripped off our citizens. under the last administration alone, drug prices rose a staggering 55%. thanks to my administration's aggressive action since taking office, we have successfully lowered drug prices for the first time in 51 years. but this reduction is still not close to what i want, what i expect and i'm looking for help for our great seniors, especially, in particular. that's what we're doing today. you'll hear something which will be very shocking. we're doing things that nobody thought could be done. it's going to have an incredible

impact. unfortunately, we've been waiting for congress to take action for many decades, to reduce drug prices for more t n than -- more than just a small handful of people, but even the small handful of people never got price reductions and i'm unwilling to wait any longer. therefore, today i'm signing four sweeping executive orders that will lead to massive reduction in drug costs. massive. we've already gotten them down a little bit but that's not good enough. first time in 51 years, as i said, but that's not good enough. they represent the most far-reaching prescription drug reforms ever issued by a president. nothing even close. joining us for this important occasion are secretary of health and human services, alex, where's alex? alex, thank you. alex azar. cms administrator, both doing a great job. seema verma.

thank you, seema. fda administrator dr. steven hahn. steven, who is really speeding up the process of therapeutics and vaccines and i just heard from some of the big drug companies and they're saying fda has really been moving the process along. very important, steven. can you move it faster, please. okay? thank you. great job. we appreciate it. and administrator of health resources and service administration, tom engels. tom, thank you. thank you very much, tom, for being here. we're also pleased to have with us our great governor from the state of florida, incredible state, incredible guy, governor ron desantis. thank you, ron, very much. appreciate it. you're going to say a few words in the end. good. representative matt gaetz, our friend. where -- hi, matt. you're so quiet back there today. i have never seen you like that.

thank you, matt. great job you're doing. appreciate it very much. speaker of the florida house of representatives, jose oliva. jose, thank you, jose. very much. good job. and many other state and local leaders. we have a lot of them. thank you very much for being here. the four orders i'm signing today will completely restructure the prescription drug market. in terms of pricing and everything else, to make these medications affordable and accessible for all americans. the first order will require federal community health centers to pass the giant discounts they receive from drug companies on insulin and epipens directly to their patients. you know, insulin became so expensive, people weren't able to use it. they desperately needed it. we have it to a level that you're not going to believe. epipens, likewise. you have been reading horrible stories about epipens over the

last six, seven years. horrible, horrible, horrible increases where they went from almost nothing to massive amounts of money. we're changing that right now. these providers should not be receiving discounts for themselves while charging the poorest patients massive full prices. under this order, the price ever insulin for affected patients will come down to just pennies a day. pennies a day from numbers that you weren't able to think about. it's a massive cost savings. the second executive order i'm signing this afternoon will allow states, wholesalers and pharmacies to do something other politicians have promised for decades and decades but never did. they never delivered. we will finally allow the safe and legal importation of prescription drugs from canada and other countries where the price for the identical drug is

incredibly lower. it's a difference like you wouldn't believe. 70%, 80%, 90%, 30%. massively lower. they are the identical drug made in the same plant, the same factory, the same exact drug, same everything, same box, same pill and yet it's 50, 60, 70% lower and this is something that ron and i have been discussing from the time ron got elected and i've been wanting to do it and it takes a long time from a legal standpoint, and we've got it all worked out. so we are going to be getting massive drug savings in florida and other states and we've had numerous states that wanted to do it. ron really was at the forefront. i will say that. but you have other states that have caught on, it's caught on very quickly.

didn't take them long to figure that one out, ron. it's too obvious. we pay for all of the research and all of the development in foreign countries pay absolutely nothing and our consumer gets charged. it's been going on for decades. the american people pay an average of over three times more for medicine than the canadians. many people go to canada, i see it all the time, they go to canada, buy drugs, then they come back, prescription drugs, because they save so much money, the trip is well worth it. the obama/biden administration pledged to end this unfairness and allow drug importation but they never got it done. they were unable to get it done. they didn't get a lot of things done. but under my administration, we're standing up to the lobbyists and special interests and fighting back against a rigged system. rigged system. you've heard that word before. i'm unrigging the system that is many decades old. we are doing something that should have been done a long

time ago. the third revolutionary order i'm signing today will prevent middlemen and women, i guess, but you've heard about the middleman, right, the middleman that makes so much money, nobody knows who they are, nobody has any idea who they are. they make more money perhaps than even the drug companies themselves and the drug companies in all fairness to them, big pharma, and they are doing a great job on the vaccines, they are doing a great job on therapeutics, i can tell you because i deal with them a lot, but i think the middlemen make more money than they do and they don't do much. maybe they don't do anything. some people say they don't do anything. nobody even knows who they are. but the middlemen are making a fortune and pharmacy benefit managers and people are just bilking medicare patients with these high drug prices while they pocket gigantic discounts. gigantic discounts.

the amount of money they have made over the decades is too incredible even to speculate or say. it's massive. some very rich people are not going to like me very much today, i can tell you. i probably know them very well. i probably see them in palm beach. but nobody ever talks about who they are. everyone, i hear the middlemen for years, the middlemen, right, alex? he doesn't know who they are, either but he knows they're rich. but they're not going to be so rich anymore. because the money is going down to reduce the price of drugs, prescription drugs. so nathat's a big thing. that's a tremendous step. it should have been taken a long time ago but they have a great deal of power. i don't have to tell you how many phone calls i've had in the last few days when they heard i was going to be doing this.

i've heard from people that i haven't spoken to in a long time. frequently, drug companies give these middlemen discounts of up to 50% on the price of prescription drugs but too often, those discounts are not passed on to the pharmacy counter, meaning the people. this rule will pass. those billions and billions of dollars a year, i mean, many many billions, a year in discounts on to patients, directly on to patients, saving americans with high drug costs thousands of dollars a year. individual people will make thousands of dollars a year. you're not going to believe the impact of the things we're talking about today are going to have. mark meadows, our great chief, is sitting here and he can't even believe it because he was a very successful congressman. he's been after people to do this for a long time. and they never got to the gate. i understand why. tremendous pressure.

tremendous pressure put on the president not to do it. the fourth and final order i'm signing today is the granddaddy of them all. will end global freeloading on the backs of american patients and american seniors. for decades, our citizens have paid the highest prices for drugs, prescription drugs, anywhere in the world. and it's not even close. foreign nations have paid vastly less for the exact same drug again, in the exact same box, from the exact same plant, from the they would pay 10%, 20%, 30%, what our people are paying, a pill that would sell for $1 in certain countries. i won't name them, they're all allies. i call them so-called allies, but a pill that would cost $1

could be $7 or $8 in our country. same exact pill. we pay 80% more than nations like germany, canada and others for some of the most expensive medicines identical in all respects. this means that americans are funding the enormous cost of drug research and development for the entire planet. we are bearing the entire cost of all of this. they're bearing none. they say this is what we're going to pay and in some cases it's a socialist country so we're paying to reduce drug prices in a socialist country. how does that work? how does that work? and these are things that should have been done a long time ago and even from our standpoint, we would have done it more quickly but we have to go through vast amounts of waiting periods,

waiting times, and this is an incredible day. this just a big day. it's a big day. i've been waiting for this day for a long time. we incredibly and foolishly bear the full cost of all research and development, which is massive. in all fairness to the drug companies, can take 15 years to get something approved billions and billions of dollars for a simple drug. it also means that the u.s. taxpayers are effective ly subsidizing the socialist healthcare systems of foreign welfare states and many other countries. we will end that abuse and restore the principles of free enterprise but this doesn't even have to do with free enterprise. this has to do with common sense and courage to be honest, and