President Trump meets heads of drug companies

President Donald Trump sat down with members of the drug industry this morning.

Trump, who has previously said that pharmaceutical companies are "getting away with murder," seemed to temper his statements, according to media reports from the White House.

The CEOs of Novartis, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Celgene, and Amgen attended the meeting along with the head of the industry's lobbying group, PhRMA.

Here's what went down:

• The president reiterated his interest in bringing drug prices down in the US, especially for Medicare and Medicaid. "The US drug companies have produced extraordinary results for our country but the pricing has been astronomical for our country," Trump said. "We have to do better."
• Trump said medical products need to be made in the US, and Trump called on the drugmakers to increase their US production.
• Trump also said he wants foreign countries to pay "their fair share" for US-made drugs, saying that he wants to end "global freeloading."
• He also made comments about the FDA, saying he intends to streamline the drug approval process and that he intends to announce his nomination for commissioner soon.
• For their part, the drug company executives asked for tax reform.

On Twitter, PhRMA president Steve Ubl said that the meeting was "positive" and "productive," especially when it came to growing the industry.

The Nasdaq biotechnology index, which has fallen for most of January, was down about 0.7% as of 9:52 a.m. in New York. By 10:20, the index was up about 1%.