President Trump said on Monday that his online drugstore, TrumpRx, was adding more than 600 generic medications to its direct-to-consumer offerings.
At an event at the White House announcing the expansion, Mr. Trump was joined by representatives from several companies that will work with the administration on the initiative. Among them was Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur who has been one of the president’s most vocal political critics. Mr. Cuban runs an online pharmacy that specializes in offering low prices for generic drugs.
“We have the same thing, one thing, in common: We want to make people better, and keep them wealthy,” Mr. Trump said to Mr. Cuban.
Mr. Cuban, who opposed the president’s re-election campaign in 2024, on Monday praised what he called a “special partnership,” noting that Americans across the political spectrum want lower drug prices.
TrumpRx, a government website introduced in February, does not sell drugs directly. It is meant to help Americans find the lowest prices for their medications, though experts cautioned that in many cases patients might pay less by going through insurance.
The other partners announced on Monday are Amazon’s pharmacy business and GoodRx, a site that allows consumers to compare prices for their drugs.
With prices rising because of the war in Iran, Mr. Trump has been counting on his drug pricing policies to appeal to Americans who are concerned about affordability.
Until now, TrumpRx had mostly listed brand-name products, including the hugely popular obesity drugs and treatments for infertility. Before the announcement on Monday, the site listed 74 drugs; all are sold by major brand-name drugmakers, though some have lost patent protection and face generic competition.
About 90 percent of Americans’ prescriptions are generic drugs. The 602 added to the site on Monday include widely used prescriptions like blood pressure medications, antibiotics and statins. Many have prices under $5. The site advises patients to check whether they can pay less by going through insurance.
The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company has grown popular by finding a niche with certain generic drugs that, because of pricing games behind the scenes, carry high out-of-pocket costs if people use their insurance.
It began operating in 2022 and now offers more than 2,300 medications. The company marks up drugs by 15 percent and sends prescriptions to patients through the mail. Before Monday’s announcement, Mr. Cuban had repeatedly praised TrumpRx, saying he was open to any good ideas that save Americans money on their prescriptions.
In recent months, Mr. Trump has struck a series of deals with manufacturers, exempting them from his threatened tariffs in exchange for their lowering some of their prices and offering certain drugs directly to consumers through TrumpRx.
A relatively small share of Americans stand to directly benefit from these moves, such as certain older people on Medicare who will soon qualify to pay $50 a month for obesity drugs. But for many Americans struggling with a range of surging costs, the president’s drug pricing moves have not translated into direct savings.
Rebecca Robbins is a Times reporter covering the pharmaceutical industry. She has been reporting on health and medicine since 2015.
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