President Donald Trump announced more drug makers have agreed to offer American customers the same prices for their prescriptions that are paid in foreign countries and make investments in American manufacturing facilities.
“I'm thrilled to be joined by the leaders of nine of the world's largest pharmaceuticals ... it’s a great group to announce that they've agreed to offer many of their flagship drugs, really all of their flagship drugs, at heavily discounted Most Favored Nations prices,” Trump said Friday.
“This represents the greatest victory for patient affordability in the history of American health care ... this is the biggest thing ever to happen on drug pricing and on health care. This will have a tremendous impact on health care itself.”
According to the White House, the manufacturers who are joining the president’s pricing scheme are Amgen Boringer, Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Genentech, Gilead, GSK, Merck, Novartis and Sanofi, bringing the total number of drug companies participating to 14. The plan brings down prices for common drugs to more in line with what are paid in other parts of the world.
A senior administration official who briefed reporters ahead of the Friday’s White House announcement said the companies had also agreed to make “$150 billion in combined new investment commitments in manufacturing and research and development here in the United States” in addition to agreeing to lower prices paid by Americans.
The companies will also kick back a portion of foreign revenue to the U.S. as a way to defray costs to American patients.
The official said Medicaid would be the first to benefit from the pricing scheme. Americans will also be able to access the lower-cost prescriptions on the administration’s Trump Rx website, which a White House official said is set to go live for use next month.
Trump’s “most favored nation” pricing model is aimed at making medications more affordable for low-income Americans, including those on Medicaid, by way of the yet-to-be-launched website.
“This is what bold leadership delivers. Where others have talked President Trump is acting, and where the establishment, including industry, said it couldn't be done, the President has proved them wrong, and the days of American families subsidizing cut rate drugs for the rest of the world are ending,” the official said.
According to the same official, the drug companies’ combined investment into American manufacturing will help the process of “rebuilding American pharmaceutical might” and contribute to “more research on the next generation of live-saving drugs” as well as to “national security and more American independence.”
He added that “several” of the companies will be donating ingredients to the government’s Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve.
Merck, for example, will donate a six-month supply of Erdopenem, a “powerful broad-spectrum antibiotic” indicated for treating “serious infections, including pneumonia, abdominal infections and complicated skin infections ... when other common antibiotics fail.”
Bristol Myers Squibb will also contribute a six-month supply of Apixaban, a blood thinner sold under the name Eliquis. And GSK will provide the reserve with a six-month supply of the asthma inhaler medication Albuterol.
“What makes this particularly unique is these manufacturers are not only donating this API, they're also agreeing to convert these raw ingredients into finished medications when needed during emergencies, and to help distribute them to the Americans that need them most,” the official added.
Friday’s announcement is the latest in a series of events in which Trump has boasted of securing cooperation from drug makers who traditionally charged lower prices to countries with single-payer health care systems that could use economies of scale to negotiate better wholesale costs.
Last month, the president said GLP-1 makers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk were “joining the phenomenal list” of drug companies that have capitulated to his administration’s demand that they offer their products on a “most-favored nation” pricing plan, bringing the cost Americans pay for their drugs down to a level on par with countries that pay lower prices through their single-payer health care systems.
For example, Trump said the cost of Wegovy would drop under the plan from $1,350 per month to $250 per month, with Zepbound dropping from $1,080 to $346. Once approved, Eli Lilly’s weight-loss pill will be available for $149.
Earlier this year, Trump announced deals with drug makers Pfizer, AstraZeneca and EMD Serono would also make their products available on TrumpRx and invest billions into the U.S. for research and development.
The president first pushed the idea of forcing drug companies to match prices offered abroad during his previous term but faced significant resistance from the industry, including pushback in a lawsuit that resulted in a federal court order blocking his administration from carrying the plan out because it had failed to follow proper regulatory procedures.
After returning to the White House, he revived the plan in an executive order he issued in May which directed his administration to take various actions to bring drug prices in the U.S. in line with prices negotiated between pharmaceutical companies and foreign countries that have single-payer health systems such as the British NHS.
In July, he sent letters to leading drug companies demanding that they bring down prices offered to Americans to match the negotiated prices available in foreign countries.
The president has often complained that Americans “pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory” and accused pharmaceutical companies of “effectively subsidizing socialism abroad with skyrocketing prices at home.”
Karl Rove warns Trump is walking into a 2026 midterm bloodbath
Pope names pro-immigrant pastor bishop of Florida diocese where Trump's Mar-a-Lago is located
Epstein files latest: Dems accuse Trump admin of ‘cover up’ after DOJ limits release
MTG’s fiancé melts down over MAGA infighting ‘bulls***’ at TPUSA conference
Democratic senators balk on vote against Marjorie Taylor Greene’s anti-trans bill
CBSNews anchor chokes back tears during emotional farewell amid Bari Weiss revamp
