Biden tells asthmatics to “get on Air Force One” with him the next time he goes to London so they can buy an inhaler for $49, while the same one costs $645 in the US.

President Joe Biden joked about using the presidential plane as a shortcut to obtain cheaper prescription drugs available abroad.

Speaking at the White House about a new law that would allow Medicare to negotiate lower costs with pharmaceutical companies, Biden and former presidential rival Sen. Bernie Sanders touted efforts to take on “Big Pharma.”

Biden pointed to large differences in the costs of some drugs in Canada and Europe, compared to the US

“Senator Sanders has pointed out that a company in Britain is selling an inhaler for $49. Do you know how much they charge for that one inhaler in the United States? $645–$645,” he said.

“If you need that inhaler, next time we go to London, get on Air Force One, you can get off and grab it for… I mean it. Just think about that.

The event brought together Biden, 81, and Sanders (I-Vt.), 82, who remains a leading force on the progressive left after declining to make another presidential run of his own.

Drug companies charge exorbitant, exorbitant prices for prescription drugs, higher prices than anywhere else in the world,” Biden said.

Biden has made lowering health care costs a key part of his 2024 re-election campaign. As chairman of the US Senate Health Committee, Sanders has already taken a series of actions – from sending letters to holding hearings – aimed at reducing putting pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to reduce costs.

Biden said he wants to negotiate lower prices on 50 drugs and cap drug costs for Americans, not just seniors, at $2,000 a year.

For example, the president said asthma is the most common respiratory disease, currently affecting 27 million Americans, including 4 million children. It costs less than $5 to make a dose of asthma medication; those costs haven’t changed at all, but pharmaceutical companies have increased prices up to eight times their original costs.

“It’s time for drug companies to pay rebates when they raise prices faster than inflation,” Biden said.

Sanders and other lawmakers in January criticized four makers of inhalers sold in the U.S. — AstraZeneca, Boehringer, Teva Pharmaceuticals and GSK — for prices that were much higher in the United States than in other countries.

Sanders has taken steps in the Senate to push drug companies to lower costs

Breathe: Biden joked about getting on Air Force One to buy cheaper inhalers in Britain

In March, three of the four companies decided to cap the cost of inhalers at $35 each.

“Despite everything we have achieved so far, it is not enough. There is much, much more to be done,” Sanders said of lowering prescription drug costs. “This is a problem we need to address.”

The Biden administration has tried to crack down on what it calls falsely claimed patents in an effort to increase competition to lower the cost of inhalers.

The president also highlighted the successful efforts included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which placed a $35 cap on insulin. He also pushed to increase the number of Medicare drugs the federal government can negotiate with drug companies from 10 to 50.

Part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allows Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices that would have been particularly expensive for the federal health insurance program that covers millions of Americans 65 and older, as well as the disabled.

Sanders is one of three independents in the Senate, but caucuses with the Democrats