Pfizer has become the first drugmaker to lower the price of its prescription medications in the U.S. through a new deal with the federal government, President Donald Trump announced during a Sept. 30 media briefing.
The White House is also launching a direct-to-consumer website for prescription medications, which will carry the discounted drugs.
What to know:
1. Pfizer will offer nearly all of its medications to Medicaid at the lowest price sold in other high-income countries, or the most-favored-nation price. Some of the drugmakers’ most popular medications will also be discounted for all consumers by 50% to 100%. In addition, all new medications Pfizer brings to market will be sold at the most-favored-nation price, President Trump said. The move could lower prices for up to 100 million patients, a White House official told The Wall Street Journal.
2. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, PhD, joined President Trump at the media briefing, also announcing a $70 billion investment in domestic manufacturing, research and development. In exchange for a three-year grace period to onshore production, Pfizer will avoid the tariffs President Trump announced last week on branded drugs made by companies without U.S. facilities.
3. The White House’s new direct-to-consumer website, dubbed TrumpRx, will allow U.S. residents to purchase Pfizer’s medications at the discounted prices. In many instances, prices will be 80% lower than current prices, according to Chris Klump, director of Medicare and CMS deputy administrator, who led negotiations with Pfizer. It was not immediately clear how many drugs would be available on the website, or when the site would officially launch.
4. Pfizer’s drug pricing agreement comes as pharmaceutical companies face increasing pressure to comply with President Trump’s “Most Favored Nation” pricing policy. In July, the Trump administration sent letters to 17 drugmakers, demanding they align U.S. drug prices with the lowest prices sold in other countries by Sept. 29 and not offer other high-income nations better prices than in the U.S. Several drugmakers, including Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb, have since lowered prices internationally in a bid to comply with the policy but stopped short from decreasing U.S. prices.
“By taking this bold step, we are ending the era of global price gouging at the expense of American families,” President Trump said.
5. The White House is working with other pharmaceutical companies to secure additional drug pricing agreements.
