The president also announced a new government-run website on which people can order drugs.
President Donald Trump on Sept. 30 announced a deal with Pfizer that features the pharmaceutical manufacturer agreeing to offer some of its drugs to consumers at reduced prices.
“This will save American taxpayers and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars a year,” Trump said at the White House in Washington.
“Today is about another promise made by President Trump, and another promise kept by President Trump,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. added later.
Drugmakers have for years charged Americans more than people in other countries. Trump in an executive order in May directed manufacturers to change that.
Pfizer is the first manufacturer to reach an agreement.
Trump praised Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who was standing nearby. “He’s doing the right thing,” the president said.
He also said the administration is working to secure similar deals with other major manufacturers. He mentioned Eli Lilly. Pfizer and Eli Lilly were two of 17 companies that received a letter from Trump over the summer calling on them to “step up” and lower prices or the federal government would “deploy every tool in our arsenal.”
Pfizer said in a statement that the new deal came in response to the letter.
“We are turning the tide and reversing an unfair situation,” Bourla told the briefing.
Pfizer makes numerous drugs, including the anticoagulant Eliguis and the COVID-19 drug Paxlovid. The New York-based drugmaker reported $14.7 billion in revenue in the second quarter.
The discounted drugs will be available through a new government-run website called TrumpRx, officials said. The website will offer drugs at prices 80 percent lower than the prices at which they’re available today, officials said.
Pfizer said it would offer drugs at savings up to 85 percent off, with an average of 50 percent off.
The announcement came several days after Trump said he would impose on Oct. 1 new tariffs on pharmaceuticals unless the company was building facilities that manufacture their products in the United States.
