President Donald Trump is ratcheting up the pressure on major drugmakers to bring their US prices in line with the far lower ones available to patients in other countries — though industry experts don’t expect the pharmaceutical companies to acquiesce.

President Donald Trump surprised pharma CEOs on Thursday with letters demanding they acquiesce to his most-favored drug-pricing scheme (see what we did there?) by the end of September, setting up a late-summer lobbying fight for the industry.

Shares of European drugmakers slipped early on Friday (Aug 1) after U.S. President Donald Trump sent letters to major pharmaceutical firms to cut drug prices in the United States, months after signing a sweeping executive order aimed at lowering prices.