Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersButtigieg stands in as Pence for Harris's debate practice Bernie Sanders warns of 'nightmare scenario' if Trump refuses election results Harris joins women's voter mobilization event also featuring Pelosi, Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda MORE (I-Vt.) vowed Sunday to cut prescription drug prices in half if elected president in 2020.

"It is absurd that Americans are forced to pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs while the top 5 drug companies made over $50 billion in profits last year," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

"We have a national health emergency when one out of five Americans cannot afford to purchase the medicine their doctors prescribe. Whether the drug companies like it or not, that is a situation which must end, and end soon."

Vermont Independent and 2020 presidential hopeful @BernieSanders tells @margbrennan: “Let me make a campaign promise to you...If I am elected president, I'm going to cut prescription drug costs in this country by 50 percent” https://t.co/CSDeSnq9Xg pic.twitter.com/iQ5mTYqDQR — Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) March 31, 2019

Sanders, who declared his 2020 candidacy in February, has aggressively targeted lowering prescription drug prices.

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In January, joined by several Democratic lawmakers, the Vermont senator introduced a sweeping set of bills to tackle high prices.

The bills would allow importation of cheaper drugs from Canada, allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices and strip monopolies from drug companies if their prices were above the average price in other wealthy countries.

Although legislation like those bills is unlikely to be approved by a Republican-controlled Senate, several 2020 Democratic nominees have joined in on rolling out plans to lower prescription costs.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenHarris joins women's voter mobilization event also featuring Pelosi, Gloria Steinem, Jane Fonda Judd Gregg: The Kamala threat — the Californiaization of America GOP set to release controversial Biden report MORE (D-Mass.), for example, introduced a bill late last year to let the government manufacture certain drugs and sell them at lower prices if there is not enough competition.

Sen. Cory Booker Cory Anthony BookerBipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death DHS opens probe into allegations at Georgia ICE facility Democratic lawmakers call for an investigation into allegations of medical neglect at Georgia ICE facility MORE (D-N.J.) recently introduced a bill to increase transparency requirements around drug company payments to people with influence over deciding which drugs Medicaid covers.

Sanders also made fighting pharmaceutical companies a central theme of his ultimately failed 2016 presidential campaign.