Nine drugmakers sign. The price at the counter is still a negotiation.

President Trump announced agreements with nine pharmaceutical companies that, the White House says, will bring down the cost of treating Parkinson’s, macular degeneration, glaucoma, liver disease and a list of other illnesses that poll well. The companies get a handshake. Patients get a promise dated after the election.

Drug pricing deals are written in the language of victory and enforced in the language of formularies. A number that looks like a cut in a briefing can look like a copay in a drugstore. The Economy desk will believe the receipt.

Meanwhile the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is at a forty-four-year low, and a Venezuela oil pact that is supposed to ease gasoline will take years to produce a barrel that matters. The administration is shopping for cheaper pills and cheaper crude at the same time. One of those is easier to announce than to pump.

Filed under Economy