Today, Alex Azar was sworn in as the new Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and everyone who cares about lowering the high price of prescription drugs let out a collective groan. While President Trump asserted that Azar would bring ‘those prescription drug prices way down,’ you would be hard-pressed to find someone who knows Azar’s track record who actually believes this notion. Azar has a long history of repeatedly increasing prices for prescription medications while he was president of the U.S. division of pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly & Co. The President rightfully acknowledged that one major goal of the health care chief was to ‘unravel the tangled web of special interests that are driving prices up for medicine.’ A potentially positive note on this otherwise bad-news story is that the President repeatedly emphasized that high drug prices should be a primary focal point of public health efforts to better support the needs of patients. We will be watching what happens next closely, as we feel that now more than ever we must be vigilant in holding these leaders accountable to Americans. For the full story on CNBC, click here: http://cnb.cx/2Gs8D0I