Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that Pfizer, the prescription drug manufacturer, has agreed to offer medications at “heavily discounted prices” through a website operated by the federal government.
The corporation also agreed to offer all medications to Medicaid, the public health insurance plan for low-income Americans and others, at “most favored nation” pricing, which means tying the cost of drugs in the US to the lowest price paid elsewhere.
“It’s going to have a huge impact on bringing Medicaid costs down like nothing else,” Trump said during a press conference with Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary.
The announcement comes after the president has for years blamed the high price of medications on drug companies and pledged to lower those costs. In the United States, prices for drugs were almost three times higher than those of 33 other countries in 2022, according to a study from the Rand Corporation.
And it comes as the government is on the brink of a shutdown, with Democrats pointing fingers at Republicans for approving deep cuts to the Medicaid program and other health safety nets. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Trump-backed bill would lead to 16 million more uninsured people by 2034.
On Tuesday, Trump announced that the discounted drugs will be available through TrumpRx.com, which does not appear to be live yet. “Prescription drugs with huge discounts will be available at TrumpRx,” read a placard shared on X by Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary.
The president also said that the administration was working with other drug companies to secure similar agreements.
Bourla, like Trump, said the other countries had not paid their “fair share for the medical innovation. And as a result, Americans had to assume disproportional cost on their shoulders.”
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“The big winner clearly will be the American patients, there is no doubt,” Bourla said. “They are the ones that will see a significant impact on their ability to buy medicines.”
But many Americans are worried about increased healthcare costs after the provisions of the spending bill go into effect.
