Efforts by President Trump’s team to halt the unstoppable surge in drug prices appear to be paying off, according to several agencies and healthcare officials.

Drug maker Merck, for example, said prices dropped 1.9 percent last year.

According to Adam Schechter, Merck’s president of Global Human Health, the report proves that “the competitive marketplace for pharmaceuticals is working.”

What’s more, the Food and Drug Administration approved more generics, 1,027, than in any year ever.

[Trump speech on drug prices set for May 11, sources say]

The radical change in drug prices and availability, however, hasn’t won many headlines, frustrating Trump allies. “The mainstream media hasn’t given Trump any credit,” said one.

One of the stars of the change is FDA chief Scott Gottlieb. A senior White House official said, “Gottlieb has been on a tear. He's solid. He's also his own machine.”

Key to changing the FDA’s culture has been Gottlieb’s embrace of Trump’s push to cut regulations and slow the development of new ones. Gottlieb, for example, issued the fewest new rules in 20 years.

And over at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, drug company price gouging has been under attack. In a celebrated case, CMS Administrator Seema Verma required Mylan to give bigger price discounts on the EpiPen, the poster child for egregious pricing behavior, resulting in savings for the federal government and states.

