President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled new agreements with nine pharmaceutical companies that have pledged to cut prices on some drugs, his latest effort to promote his administration’s health care agenda ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.
Trump’s initiative — dubbed Most Favored Nation — is an effort to link U.S. drug prices to those of other countries with lower costs. Executives from Alcon, Astellas Pharma, BeOne Medicines, BridgeBio, CSL, Kyowa Kirin, Sun Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals and UCB joined Trump on Monday. The White House said the companies had agreed to lower prices on drugs that treat hemophilia, Parkinson’s disease, glaucoma and other conditions.
The deals will offer discounts on drugs sold to the government and to Americans through a government website, TrumpRx.gov, in exchange for tariff relief and other incentives.
Trump has previously announced similar agreements with 17 other companies, including Eli Lilly, Pfizer and other large pharmaceutical firms. He has pressured other firms to make similar pacts.
“We now have 26 companies representing 90 percent of the domestic pharmaceutical market, and the other 10 percent are also coming in,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “They have no choice.”
Health care costs are voters’ top economic worry, surpassing the cost of gasoline and other transportation costs, their rent or mortgage, and other issues, according to polling conducted in June by KFF, a nonpartisan health care research and polling organization.
Voters have traditionally said they trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle health care issues, including addressing the cost of prescription drugs. Trump and his administration have sought to close that gap by making regular announcements on the president’s Most Favored Nation program.
“Our polls show Democrats still with a lead on drug costs (and a big lead on health) despite Trump hammering the drug price issue,” Drew Altman, KFF’s president, wrote in a text message.
Prescription drug prices also fell 2.7 percent over the 12 months ending in July — the largest annual drop on record — according to federal data. Trump has taken credit for the declining prices, but outside analysts have pointed to efforts begun under the Biden administration to negotiate lower drug prices and other industry changes. Some have also criticized Trump’s initiative, which has not been codified by Congress, as ephemeral and easily reversed by a future administration.
“The new deals are a distraction from the administration’s failed plan to lower U.S. drug prices to the levels paid in other wealthy countries,” said Peter Mayburdak, the director of the Access to Medicines program at Public Citizen, a government watchdog.
PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry’s chief lobbying group, has also criticized Trump’s efforts to tie U.S. drug prices to foreign prices.
“Our industry shares the Trump administration’s commitment to ensuring patients can access and afford the medicines their doctors prescribe,” Alex Schriver, senior vice president of PhRMA, said in a statement Monday. “Today’s announcement reflects companies making their own, individual pricing decisions based on their unique circumstances and patient populations.”
Brian Blase, the president of the Paragon Health Institute, a conservative-leaning health research organization, has heralded Trump’s efforts.
“The precise causes of the historic decline in prescription drug prices will take time to disentangle, but consumers are clearly benefiting from greater competition and new ways to purchase medicines,” Blase, who served in the first Trump administration, wrote earlier this month.
Some of the companies on Monday also announced donations to the U.S. government’s strategic reserve of active pharmaceutical ingredients.
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