Experts said Trump’s action could potentially lower the cost of prescription drugs, perhaps by the 30 percent to 80 percent scale Trump said, but they cautioned that the order’s required procedural steps would make it far from an immediate fix.

President Donald Trump said his executive order on drug prices would lower some prices in half or more. But the details are scant.

The president has signed an executive order stating that the US will institute a “most-favored-nation” policy, whereby the US will pay the same price for a drug as the nation that pays the lowest price.