Trump announces drug-pricing deal with Pfizer, new ‘TrumpRx’ website

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer would sell its drugs to a government program at discounted rates, acceding to his long-running push to lower U.S. drug prices, and he pledged that similar deals with other companies would soon follow.

Pfizer agreed to bring the price of its drugs sold to Medicaid, the government safety-net program that provides health coverage to about 70 million Americans, in line with the lower rates paid by other developed countries. Pfizer also announced a $70 billion investment in research and development, and domestic manufacturing as part of the deal.

Administration officials at a news conference in the Oval Office also teased a new website dubbed TrumpRx, which they said would expedite direct-to-consumer sales of medications at discounted rates.

The announcements are part of the White House’s push to secure “Most Favored Nation” pricing deals with pharmaceutical manufacturers, an effort to link U.S. drug prices to lower costs abroad. Trump signed an executive order in May that laid out the initiative, and administration officials have been negotiating with pharmaceutical companies in a bid to get them to voluntarily lower their prices. The deadline for those voluntary agreements was Monday.

“The United States is done subsidizing the health care of the rest of the world,” Trump said Tuesday, joined by Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla, Vice President JD Vance and other senior administration officials. Some Democrats and drug-pricing experts have said they support the administration’s efforts but are skeptical that the initiative will result in lower costs for many Americans, given the complexities of the U.S. drug pricing system.

Trump said that he used the threat of tariffs to compel agreements from the drug industry, which Bourla acknowledged during the news conference had been a “powerful tool” in motivating his company’s decision.

“I think we had a pretty good negotiating position,” Trump said.

Trump has long argued that the United States government spends too much on medications and pursued a similar drug-pricing plan during his first term. His administration has sought to pressure the pharmaceutical industry through a mix of tariffs and new initiatives, such as several pilot programs being developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that could impose new drug-pricing controls in the Medicare program, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail those pilot programs.

Trump sent letters in July to 17 pharmaceutical companies, calling on them to lower their drug prices within 60 days. The industry’s main lobbying group has sought to blunt demands with concessions, and on Monday announced its members would take voluntary steps to support Trump’s goals, including a new website intended to help Americans shop for lower-priced drugs.

Voters consistently rate high prescription drug costs as a concern, polling shows, and U.S. officials across multiple administrations have called on drugmakers to cut their rates. Trump said Tuesday that he believed that demonstrating lower drug prices would have a “huge” effect on next year’s midterm elections, adding that Eli Lilly and other drug companies would soon announce their own voluntary agreements with the administration. Eli Lilly did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Administration officials also highlighted several Pfizer medications that they said would be newly discounted, such as an eczema treatment that would be available at an 80% discount. In a briefing with reporters, officials said they hoped that the new TrumpRx website would go live in early 2026 and help consumers navigate online offerings to obtain discounted drug prices. They also clarified that the new discounted prices will be pegged to a formula that includes prices in the six other G7 countries, as well as Switzerland and Denmark.

Democrats have said that they share Trump’s goals for lower drug prices, but have criticized his reliance on executive orders to achieve them and called for comprehensive legislation, rather than piecemeal announcements. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) on Monday issued a report that found 87 drugs increased in price after Trump sent the letters to drug manufacturers.

“In his second term, Trump once again says he wants to lower prices on prescription drugs. But prescription drug prices keep increasing,” Sanders wrote in the report. The Biden administration also pursued efforts to lower U.S. drug prices, such as an initiative to empower Medicare to directly negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on some of their priciest drugs.

Drug-pricing experts on Tuesday questioned whether the administration’s effort would lead to substantive savings for the government, noting that Medicaid sales are relatively minimal for Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies.

“The devil is in the details,” said Rena Conti, a Boston University professor, noting that the drugs highlighted by the White House did not represent major drivers of U.S. spending and that many patients already receive assistance that lowers their drug costs. “Very few Americans take the drugs announced to have lower prices today.”

Experts also questioned the value of the new TrumpRx website, noting there are similar portals intended to help Americans shop for lower drug prices, and suggested that branding the president’s name on the program could backfire if U.S. drug prices remain high.

“This policy will have little effect to no effect on drug prices for the vast majority of consumers,” said Craig Garthwaite, director of health care at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “There is a danger in attaching your name to something that won’t address the central concerns in the market.”

One of the government’s lead negotiators, Medicare czar Chris Klomp, said Tuesday that pharmaceutical companies had no financial incentives to voluntarily lower their prices — but the administration stressed that high drug costs were “morally unjust” and harmed vulnerable patients.

“You recognized the opportunity to align your economic interests with the social interests of the American people,” Klomp said, addressing Bourla.

In return, administration officials said, companies that move to lower their prices will receive priority vouchers to expedite FDA reviews when applying for federal approval of future drugs, among other incentives.

“A voucher to get a review in weeks has a market street value of about $500 million, because every day is money when it comes to getting a drug approved,” said Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary.

Conti said it was unclear whether federal officials could create a new pathway to accelerate drug approvals without Congress.

The government already pays far less for drugs in the Medicaid program than in other public insurance programs. Drug manufacturers must pay rebates to state Medicaid programs as a condition of participating in the program. They also are required to offer Medicaid the lowest price they offer to any commercial health plans.

The average price for top-selling, brand-name drugs in Medicaid was $118 — much less than the $343 average price for drugs in Medicare’s prescription drug program, according to a 2021 report by the Congressional Budget Office. Analysts noted that Medicaid recipients already pay nothing or little for prescription drugs, so any savings would likely accrue to state Medicaid programs.

“We don’t yet know specifics, but it’s hard to imagine that states and the federal government are going to save much money based on this announcement,” said Hannah Katch, a senior Medicaid official during the Biden administration.

Wall Street took a favorable view of Pfizer’s concessions, with analysts saying that the company had avoided more punitive measures. Pfizer’s stock price was up more than 6% in trading at 3 p.m.