President Trump, joined by Nationwide Institutes of Well being Director Jay Bhattacharya and Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., talks about an govt order aimed toward decreasing the price of pharmaceuticals.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs
cover caption
toggle caption
Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs
President Trump is taking purpose at U.S. drug costs with an govt order geared towards forcing drug firms to match the decrease costs paid in different developed international locations.
If drugmakers do not do it voluntarily, the administration is threatening to straight tie drug costs paid by authorities applications like Medicare to these paid in different international locations.
“Whoever is paying the bottom worth, that is the worth that we’ll get,” Trump stated in an announcement on the White Home, explaining what he known as “most favored nation” pricing.
He stated drugmakers must lower their U.S. costs to the extent paid by different developed international locations—or face penalties. “If essential, we’ll examine the drug firms, and we’ll, specifically, examine the international locations which can be doing this,” he stated. He additionally stated that the U.S. market could be opened to imports from different international locations.
Sufferers within the U.S. typically pay extra for medication than sufferers in different international locations, largely as a result of different international locations have authorities well being care methods that set costs they’re prepared to pay. The U.S., by and huge, does not set costs, so drug firms have extra freedom to see what costs the market right here will bear.
“We have been subsidizing different international locations all through the world” by paying increased costs, Trump stated on the White Home Monday, joined by leaders of federal well being businesses.
The chief order lays out a number of approaches to decrease costs
The brand new govt order has a number of elements. It directs the U.S. Commerce Consultant and Division of Commerce to take motion towards “unreasonable and discriminatory insurance policies” that decrease drug costs overseas, although it isn’t clear what authority the White Home has on this regard. It additionally directs Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to facilitate direct–to-consumer gross sales that bypass medical health insurance at decrease costs.
The order says that inside 30 days the administration will give worth targets to drugmakers “to deliver costs for American sufferers in keeping with comparably developed nations.” The order lays out actions the administration would take if drugmakers do not comply voluntarily, resembling rulemaking to impose the costs. It is unclear within the brief time period what authorized authority the administration must implement the order.
Trump stated he does not suppose the transfer would damage drug firms’ potential to generate profits as a result of they may put stress on different international locations to make up the distinction by elevating their costs. “Europe’s going to must pay just a little bit extra,” Trump stated. “The remainder of the world goes to must pay just a little bit extra, and America goes to pay so much much less.”
Trump teased the most recent “most favored nation” worth coverage on Fact Social Sunday night time, prompting the commerce group Pharmaceutical Analysis and Producers of America, or PhRMA, to return out towards the chief order, calling it a “dangerous deal for American sufferers.”
After the chief order was introduced, PhRMA president and CEO Steve Ubl stated in a press release: “To decrease prices for People, we have to tackle the actual causes U.S. costs are increased: international international locations not paying their justifiable share and middlemen driving up costs for U.S. sufferers.” He added, “The Administration is correct to make use of commerce negotiations to pressure international governments to pay their justifiable share for medicines. U.S. sufferers shouldn’t foot the invoice for world innovation.”
Most favored nation pricing was proposed earlier than
Trump initially signed an govt order on most favored nation pricing in late 2020 throughout his first time period that may have tied Medicare Half B drug costs to these in different international locations. However the govt order confronted court docket challenges and was in the end dropped by the Biden administration. On the marketing campaign path final 12 months, Trump  stated he would reinstate essentially the most favored nation govt order from 2020, however a video about it disappeared from Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign web site.
Medicare started negotiating drug costs for the primary time through the Biden administration in 2024, below new authority granted by the Inflation Discount Act. The brand new decrease Medicare costs for the primary 10 medication will not go into impact till January 2026, however the reductions vary from 79% for diabetes drug Januvia to 38% for blood most cancers drug Imbruvica. Now, the Trump administration is negotiating the second batch of drug costs for 15 medicines in accordance with the regulation.
Throughout the White Home announcement, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies below Trump, identified that even the decrease negotiated Medicare costs are increased than what individuals pay in Europe for a similar merchandise. “Half the time we’re paying 3 times greater than is paid in different international locations. It does not make any sense for the system.”
Oz says the brand new govt order will deliver these costs down even additional.
