WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the pharmaceutical industry’s agreement to help close a gap in Medicare’s drug coverage will make health care overhaul more possible.

Drug companies have pledged to spend $80 billion over the next decade to help reduce the cost of drugs for seniors and pay for a portion of Obama’s proposed revamping of health care. The deal was struck with Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, as well as the White House.

The president was joined Monday in announcing the deal by Barry Rand, head of the senior citizens’ advocacy group AARP. Speaking in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Obama praised drug companies for stepping up to do their part in the reform effort.