(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump and nine major pharmaceutical companies announced Friday deals expected to slash the prices of their medicines for the government’s Medicaid program and for cash payers.
Under the agreement, each drugmaker will cut prices on most drugs sold to the Medicaid program for low-income people, senior administration officials said, promising “massive savings” on widely used medicines without giving specific figures.
Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, and Merck and Roche’s U.S. unit, Genentech, have struck deals. Novartis, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi and GSK were those who signed on to the deal.
U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere.
During Friday’s announcement, Trump repeatedly touted tariff threats against other countries as a means of getting the deal across the finish line.
The details of each deal were not immediately available, but officials said they included agreements to cut cash-pay direct-to-consumer prices of select drugs sold potentially through the TrumpRx.gov website, to launch drugs in the U.S. at prices equal to, not lower than, those in other wealthy nations and to increase manufacturing. In return, companies can receive a three-year exemption from any tariffs.
It’s the latest in a series of moves by the president to reduce the price of widely used prescription drugs. In November, he announced popular weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy would drop to $350 a month when purchased directly without insurance.
Many of Trump’s price deals apply only to Medicaid and direct-to-consumer sales on the Trump Rx website, which is expected to launch by the end of the year.
Trump has previously touted agreements with drugmakers Pfizer and AstraZeneca, announcing that Medicaid would be given “most-favored nations” pricing on medications and that some prescription drugs would be offered at a discount directly to consumers.