Tucked inside Trump's drug-pricing executive order is an apparent threat to withdraw drugmakers' medicines if they do not lower prices

The package revives President Donald Trump’s much-maligned Most Favored Nation rule but goes further into the private markets and beyond, leveraging the patent system, drug importation and more.

By Steve Holland, Michael Erman and Patrick Wingrove WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump signed a wide-reaching executive order on Monday directing drugmakers to lower the prices of their medicines to align with what other countries pay that analysts and legal experts said would be difficult to implement.

President Trump's executive order on drug pricing caused a surprising rally in pharmaceutical stocks. Read my analysis of PJP ETF.

The move would align prescription costs in the US with the costs of other countries, according to the administration.

It’s drawn the industry off the sidelines, with several senior executives preparing to barnstorm Capitol Hill this week, according to nearly a dozen industry lobbyists and consultants who were not authorized to speak publicly about their efforts.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order reviving a controversial plan to lower prescription drug costs by linking the price of certain medications in the U.S. to their lower prices in other countries.

The pharmaceutical industry has argued that Trump’s 2020 attempt would give foreign governments the “upper hand” in deciding the value of medicines in the U.S.

The pharmaceutical industry, which is well known for its well-resourced lobbying campaigns, has a lesser-known tactic for influencing policy: bankrolling ostensibly independent nonprofit organizations