Ex-Eli Lil­ly ex­ec Azar lands HHS nom­i­na­tion as Trump cham­pi­ons low­er drug prices

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump may oc­ca­sion­al­ly erupt with pas­sion­ate crit­i­cism for bio­phar­ma com­pa­nies and the ex­ecs who run them, but once again he’s go­ing with an in­dus­try in­sid­er for a top gov­ern­ment post. The na­tion’s 45th pres­i­dent just tweet­ed that he has nom­i­nat­ed Alex Azar as the next sec­re­tary of Health and Hu­man Ser­vices.

Hap­py to an­nounce, I am nom­i­nat­ing Alex Azar to be the next HHS Sec­re­tary. He will be a star for bet­ter health­care and low­er drug prices!

— Don­ald J. Trump (@re­al­Don­aldTrump) No­vem­ber 13, 2017

“He will be a star for bet­ter health­care and low­er drug prices!,” Trump ex­claimed. Azar’s last job was as Eli Lil­ly’s US chief. The sharp, Yale ed­u­cat­ed at­tor­ney did not have a rep for slash­ing drug prices at Lil­ly, which he left dur­ing a big ex­ec­u­tive reshuf­fle af­ter Dave Ricks grabbed the CEO’s job.

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