Nine pharma companies ink deals with Trump to lower drug prices
President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at reducing the cost of prescription drugs and medications by 30% to 80% during an event held in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on May 12, 2025, in Washington, DC.
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Many of the largest drugmakers based in the United States and Europe signed agreements with President Donald Trump on Friday to voluntarily sell their drugs at a lower price.
This includes Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, amgen, Gilead, GSK, sanofiRoche’s Genentech, privately held Boehringer Ingelheim and Novartis. In exchange, the companies agreed to a three-year grace period during which their products would not be subject to Trump’s drug-specific tariffs as long as drugmakers invest more in U.S. production.
That’s the majority of the 17 drugmakers Trump sent letters to in July urging them to lower prices as part of his “most favored nation” policy. Trump signed a deal executive order To revive this policy in May, calls were made to raise prices outside the US and “end global freeloading”.
“As of today, 14 of the 17 largest pharmaceutical companies have agreed to greatly reduce drug prices for the American people and American patients,” Trump said at an event on Friday. “This represents by far the greatest victory for patient affordability in the history of American health care, and every American will benefit.”
Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie and Regeneron are among the largest companies that have not signed drug pricing agreements. However, Trump noted: Johnson&Johnson “I’ll be here next week.”
Nine drugmakers have agreed to take measures to lower U.S. drug prices, including selling their existing treatments to Medicaid patients at the lowest “most preferred nation” prices and guaranteeing that pricing for new drugs. Trump said drugmakers also agreed to list their most popular drugs on TrumpRx, a direct-to-consumer website that will launch in January.
Some companies have also launched new or expanded direct-to-consumer offerings for certain drugs. For example, Gilead said in a statement that it will launch a program that will allow patients to access Hepatitis C treatment and its treatment, Epclusa, at a discounted price.
Sanofi said it will offer nearly 70% off certain medications for treating infections, cardiovascular and diabetes conditions on TrumpRx and other direct-to-consumer platforms.
Earlier this year, Trump announced he was making deals. Eli LillyNovo Nordisk, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Merck Serono will sell certain drugs directly to patients at a discount in exchange for exemptions from planned drug tariffs and other benefits such as rapid review of new drugs.
According to a 2024 study by the RAND Corporation, prescription drug prices in the United States are, on average, almost three times higher than abroad. The report revealed that prices of branded drugs have increased more than four times.
Trump signed a deal executive order In May, it calls for reviving the most preferred country policy, increasing prices outside the US, and “ending global freeloading”.
PhRMA, the trade association that represents many major pharmaceutical companies, said most-preferred nation pricing is not the best way to lower drug costs for Americans and instead blamed pharmacy benefit managers for the price disparity.
The United States, regardless of home country, is the most important market for many drug manufacturers. European pharmaceutical companies are heavily exposed to the US market despite being based on the other side of the Atlantic; Half of the continent’s 10 largest companies generate the majority of their sales in the United States.
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