Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) argued in an interview released Wednesday that drug companies must be allowed to make a profit to make innovations on medical treatments and cures.

Cassidy’s comments come after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to make prescription drug prices in the United States comparable to those in other countries.

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However, Cassidy, who supports lowering the costs of prescription drugs, said that drug companies must be profitable to seek innovative treatments.

“Health care should be about sustainability,” Cassidy said in an interview with Punchbowl News. “Now, we can toss that to the side and say we don’t need innovation, in which case we’d never find a cure for Alzheimer’s, we’d never find better cures for cancers.”

The Food and Drug Administration approved a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease earlier this month, which follows the administration’s approval of the drug lecanemab in 2023 and donanemab in 2024 to directly treat Alzheimer’s disease. 

Before a drug can go to market, companies must follow rigorous FDA guidelines and protocol. Research and development of a new drug can cost manufacturers anywhere between $172.7 million and $897.3 million. Cassidy argues that hindrances to a drug manufacturer’s ability to make a profit may be detrimental in seeking new treatments. 

“All these things that we now look upon as intractable — ALS, for example — we don’t find a cure for because we decide we’re not going to let drug companies make a dime of profit,”  Cassidy said. “As a doc[tor], that would be a tragedy.”

TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER LOWERING PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES

Cassidy proposed reforming the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which is designed to help low-income patients afford their prescriptions instead of hampering prescription drug manufacturers’ profits.

“The original intent of the program was to enable care for Medicare, Medicaid, and the uninsured. Inherent in that is that we want to use the money as efficiently as possible,” Cassidy said. “This was never meant to be part of an earnings call. It was meant to be part of patient care.”