Prescription drug prices fell 3.1% over the 12 months ending in July — the steepest annual decline in more than six decades, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index report released Aug. 12.
The prescription drug index also dropped 0.8% from June to July on a seasonally adjusted basis, the third straight monthly decrease. Prescription drug prices have not risen in a single month in 2026 and have fallen in five of the last six months.
The drop in prescription drug prices helped pull down the broader medical care commodities index, which fell 2.7% over the year, even as medical care services — including hospital and physician charges — continued to rise. Hospital services rose 5.2% and physicians’ services rose 2.4% over the same 12-month period, per BLS.
The 12-month decline coincides with a stretch in which the Trump administration has pursued most-favored-nation pricing deals with drugmakers — including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Regeneron — tying U.S. prices to the lowest rates those companies charge in other wealthy countries. The administration’s TrumpRx marketplace, which launched in February with 40 branded drugs, also expanded in May to more than 600 generic medications, including atorvastatin, lisinopril and metformin, through partnerships with Amazon Pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs and GoodRx.
Medicare also began covering GLP-1 drugs for weight loss for the first time this year under a Trump-negotiated deal that caps patient costs at $245 a month with a $50 copay.
It’s not clear how much, if any, of the CPI decline traces back to those initiatives. TrumpRx’s list prices are not always the lowest option for insured patients — its $350 monthly Ozempic price, for example, can be undercut by Medicare Part D discounts averaging 40% off list price and Medicaid discounts exceeding 75%, and the platform itself warns users to check their copay first. Reviews by the New York Times and NBC News found TrumpRx’s prices also fail to match the administration’s “world’s lowest prices” claim internationally — American patients pay about $2,700 more a month for the hormone drug Ngenla than patients in Germany, for instance — and only 7% of U.S. prescription drug users have visited the site.
Other cost pressures could work against the trend, too. Vizient’s Spend Management Outlook projects pharmaceutical prices will rise 3.54% in 2027, up 0.7 percentage points from its winter forecast — a figure that still excludes tariffs given continued uncertainty over how they’ll shake out.
That uncertainty is starting to resolve, but not in the trend’s favor. A 100% tariff on patented drugs and their ingredients took effect July 31 for large manufacturers, following a Section 232 finding that pharmaceutical imports pose a national security risk. Smaller companies face the same tariff starting Sept. 29. Generic drugs face their own escalating schedule beginning Aug. 1, moving from tariff-free to 100% by year three and 200% after that. The 17 drugmakers with most-favored-nation pricing deals are exempt from the tariff through January 2029, while companies without finalized deals face a 20% rate.
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