President Donald Trump has a new plan to tackle rising drug costs—and of course, it’s got his name plastered all over it.
Yesterday afternoon, Trump announced the latest phase of his administration’s efforts to lower drug prices. The centerpiece, as previously reported, will include a new website named TrumpRx, intended to help provide Americans discounts on a variety of drugs. The White House also reported that it has reached a deal with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to lower the pricing on many of its drugs, which will be listed on the website as well.
At least some outside experts, however, aren’t confident that TrumpRx, or any of the administration’s proposed strategies, will significantly lower most people’s out-of-pocket spending on medications.
“I think it’s more underwhelming than what the president is touting,” Ameet Sarpatwari, a pharmaceutical policy expert and an assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School, told NPR on Tuesday.
How TrumpRx will work
As laid out by the White House, TrumpRx will not directly sell or distribute drugs to Americans. Rather, it will connect people to drug companies’ direct-to-consumer discount programs. It’s expected to go live sometime in 2026.
According to Pfizer, the drugs it will make available through TrumpRx will have an average 50% discount. The company has also pledged to sell drugs to Medicaid and to sell new drugs in the U.S. at the same price as it does in similarly wealthy countries—a policy known as “Most Favored Nation” pricing that the White House has been trumpeting as the solution to high drug costs. Lastly, in exchange for a three-year grace period on paying new tariffs for its imported products, Pfizer has agreed to ramp up domestic manufacturing in the U.S.
The White House also suggested that many other companies will soon follow Pfizer’s example and make their drugs cheaper through TrumpRx and other avenues.
Unfortunately, all those proposals have important caveats behind them.
Why Trump’s plan to lower drug costs is leaky
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