Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla (second from right) rings the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in this file photo from 2019.
Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
The White House on Tuesday announced a new direct-to-consumer website called TrumpRx where Americans will be able to buy prescription drugs at lower prices.
"The White House is planning to unveil a direct-to-consumer website for Americans to buy drugs, dubbed TrumpRx, as well as announce that Pfizer plans to lower prices on several of its medications in the U.S.," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X.
The deal with Pfizer will reduce the price of the company’s prescription drugs for Medicaid to Most Favored Nation pricing.
It comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s threat to drugmakers to enact 100% tariffs on branded or patented pharmaceuticals starting Oct. 1 unless manufacturers build a plant in America.
Also, in July, Trump sent letters to 17 pharmaceutical companies demanding they extend the Most Favored Nation pricing — the lowest price paid for a drug in a peer country — to all drugs provided to Medicaid enrollees, according to CNN.
Pfizer said that in response to the four points covered in the July letter, it has voluntarily agreed to implement measures to ensure Americans receive comparable drug prices to those available in other developed countries. It is also pricing newly launched medicines at parity with other key developed markets and will participate in the direct purchasing platform, TrumpRx.gov, to allow Americans to purchase medicines at a significant discount.
“The large majority of the company’s primary care treatments and some select specialty brands will be offered at savings that will range as high as 85% and on average 50%,” Pfizer said.
Specific terms of the agreement remain confidential, the company said.
The agreement provides certainty from tariffs and clarity on a pricing framework that furthers Pfizer’s ability to expand investment in U.S.-based innovation and return manufacturing to the United States, Pfizer said.
Pfizer and the Trump administration have agreed to a three-year grace period during which time Pfizer products won't face tariffs, provided it further invests in manufacturing in the United States.
Additionally, Pfizer said it has established a global pricing approach that will continue drug innovation while ensuring prices are “both reasonable and sustainable.”
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla joined Trump in announcing the agreement.
“By working closely with the administration, we are lowering costs for patients and enabling greater investment in the U.S. biopharmaceutical ecosystem by ending the days when American families alone carried the global burden of paying for innovation,” Bourla said. “We now have the certainty and stability we need on two critical fronts, tariffs and pricing, that have suppressed the industry’s valuations to historic lows.”
Pfizer has a U.S. workforce of 31,000, 13 manufacturing and distribution sites, and seven major R&D facilities.
“We are committed to channeling unprecedented resources with an additional $70 billion dedicated to U.S. research, development and capital projects in the next few years,” Bourla said.
This builds upon Pfizer’s more than $83 billion investment in American biotech innovation from 2018-2024, he said.
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org