In March of 2018, HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced the appointment of Daniel Best s the Senior Advisor to Secretary Azae for Drug Pricing Reform. He filled on the most important priorities Secretary Alex Azar identified. Secretary Azar upon his appointment identified four initiatives:
- Addressing the cost and availability of Health Insurance
- Creating a value-based HealthCare System
- Bring down the cost of prescription drugs
- Combating the opioid crisis.
Best’s initiatives and actions were reinforced with the signing of these pieces of legislation showing that he had the full support of the White House. President Trump was very transparent about his feelings of the gag clauses that pharmacists must abide too and the astronomical pricing of drugs that cost mere pennies to manufacture.
It’s called the law of supply and demand. They didn’t want to have that. But now we have that and it’s going to lower drug prices.
~President Donald J.Trump
On November 1, 2018, the 49-year-old pharma veteran and Senior Advisor to HHS Secretary Azar, Daniel Best, was found dead by first responders by a garage entryway at Navy Yard neighborhood at 5:25 A.M.
I contacted DC Metro PD for a quote and their PIO said: “Best was found unresponsive and the medical personnel who arrived on the scene pronounced him dead upon their arrival.” When I followed up to ask how he was found, who reported it and if there were any witnesses they declined to comment and said it was an ongoing investigation even though the Chief Medical Examiner claimed it was suicide.
When I asked why there was an ongoing investigation if his death due to “multiple blunt force injuries” was ruled a suicide they declined to comment and terminated the call.
Best decided to serve in this position out of a desire to serve the American people by making health care more affordable. He brought his deep expertise and passion to this task with great humility and collegiality. All of us who served with Dan at HHS and in the administration mourn his passing and extend our thoughts and prayers to his wife Lisa and the entire Best family at this difficult time. ~Secretary Azar
Many say that Daniel Best serving in this position gave HHS an insider view on how drug pricing manipulation happens and that he had too much experience in knowing the inner workings. “The knowledge he had about the industry was vast and we were able to hurdle through large chunks of red tape within hours,” said an employee who worked under Mr. Best but wished to remained anonymous.
