President Trump announced Monday that his administration has reached agreements with nine more pharmaceutical companies to provide lower-cost prescription drugs to state Medicaid programs.
“In total, these agreements are projected to save Americans more than $600 billion over a very short period of time,” Mr. Trump said during an Oval Office announcement.
The new deals fall under Mr. Trump’s “most-favored-nation” drug pricing initiative, a policy designed to bring U.S. medication costs closer to the prices paid in other developed countries. The plan also includes direct-to-consumer sales through TrumpRx, a website launched by the administration in February that offers Americans discounts on brand-name prescription drugs.
According to the White House, 17 drugmakers had previously agreed over the past year to voluntarily reduce prices under the “most favored nation” arrangement.
“With today’s announcement, we now have 26 companies representing 90% of the domestic pharmaceutical market, and the other 10% are also coming in,” Mr. Trump said. “They have no choice.”
The nine new firms that have agreed to offer consumer discounts are midsize pharmaceutical firms, according to a White House fact sheet. They include Alcon, Astellas Pharma, BeOne Medicines, BridgeBio, CSL, Kyowa Kirin, Sun Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals and UCB.
The White House said the companies will provide access to their drugs to every state Medicaid program in the U.S., “resulting in billions of dollars in savings for Americans.”
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The companies have also committed to spending $19.6 billion on manufacturing, according to the Trump administration.
Alain Sherter