WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at lowering drug prices, demanding that drug companies offer prices for prescription drugs comparable to those in other developed nations.

"The Order instructs the Administration to communicate price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to establish that America, the largest purchaser and funder of prescription drugs in the world, gets the best deal," the order said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will establish a mechanism through which American patients can buy their drugs directly from manufacturers who sell to Americans at a "Most-Favored-Nation" price, bypassing middlemen, it continued.

"We are going to pay the lowest price there is in the world. Whoever is paying the lowest price, that's the price that we're going to get," Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday, before departing for the Middle East.

Trump said drugmakers would have to lower their US prices to the level paid by other developed countries, or could face investigation.

According to recent data, the prices Americans pay for brand-name drugs are more than three times the price other OECD nations pay, even after accounting for discounts manufacturers provide in the United States, the order noted.

OECD stands for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, with the majority of its members being developed nations.

The United States has less than five percent of the world's population, yet funds roughly 75 percent of global pharmaceutical profits, according to the order.