President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that drug companies are "getting away with murder" and proposed creating government "bidding procedures" to hold down drug costs, but with one exception, associations representing the industry largely kept any criticism to themselves despite past opposition to price controls.

During a news conference, Trump blasted the pharmaceutical industry for allegedly moving their manufacturing operations overseas. He said "pharma" has "a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power," but he wanted the government to negotiate drug prices and "save billions of dollars over time."

"They supply our drugs, but they don't make them here, to a large extent," Trump said. "And the other thing we have to do is create new bidding procedures for the drug industry because they're getting away with murder."

The president-elect has previously expressed support for allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices—an idea that has usually been more popular among Democrats than Republicans. His comments sent biotech stocks tumbling, but two groups representing the industry—the Biotechnology Innovation Organization and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturer of America—released no official statements challenging Trump's claims as of Thursday morning.

However, PhRMA tweeted a link to an older article questioning the effectiveness of the idea, although the association did not clarify whether the post was a response to Trump. Association CEO Stephen Ubl was contacted by Reuters news agency and said medicines are purchased in a competitive marketplace, adding his industry was "committed to working with President-elect Trump and Congress to improve American competitiveness and protect American jobs." http://reut.rs/2jbFjCR

The Generic Pharmaceutical Association was the only group to issue a direct response to Trump's remarks, saying it understood Trump's concerns about drug prices.

"Study after study demonstrates that generic medicines drive down drug costs through competition," the group said. "Still, more can be done to increase competition and we look forward to working with the new administration to reduce the backlog of generic drug applications at FDA, and on initiatives that bring more generic and biosimilar products to the market." http://bit.ly/2jArdHO

MORE CEO DATELINE

• Medical groups defend vaccine safety
• Bar association urge delay for AG confirmation hearing
• CompTIA absorbs IT professional association
• Solar energy associations to merge
• Products group ends lawsuit, hits reset button