In letters to 17 pharmaceutical companies, the president called for swift action to implement most-favored-nation prescription drug pricing.
President Donald Trump has told CEOs of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies that he expects them to implement Most Favored Nation drug pricing within 60 days.
The president sent letters to 17 drug makers, including several headquartered overseas, announcing that he would “deploy every tool” available “to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices.”
Fulfilling a campaign promise, Trump issued the Most Favored Nation Prescription Drug Pricing executive order on May 12, asking drugmakers to offer their lowest price on a slate of drugs in the United States.
Prescription drug prices are higher in the United States than anywhere else in the world, more than twice as much on average, according to a 2024 report from the Department of Health and Human Services. For the most expensive medications, the disparity is even greater.
In his May 12 executive order, Trump asked drug makers to voluntarily offer the lowest price to U.S. customers. If they did not, Trump said he would “take additional aggressive action.”
Since then, Trump said drug makers have responded with blame shifting and requests for policy changes that would amount to billions of dollars in “handouts” to the industry.
Lower prices are available in other countries in part because those with centralized health care systems can essentially dictate pricing.
The president characterized this arrangement as freeloading by other nations.
“Moving forward, the only thing I will accept from drug manufacturers is a commitment that provides American families immediate relief from the vastly inflated drug prices and an end to the free ride of American innovation by European and other developed nations,” Trump wrote.
Identical letters were sent to AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Sanofi.
Trump asked the companies to make “binding commitments” to the Most Favored Nation plan by Sept. 29.
That includes offering the most-favored-nation price to Medicaid, guaranteeing the most-favored-nation price for new medications, and using revenue gained from price hikes overseas to pay for the price cuts to American consumers.
The Medicaid program spends more than $80 billion a year on prescription drugs.
