Pfizer does deal with Trump on prescription drug prices

[umbertino]

 

By Nandita Bose and Patrick Wingrove

September 30, 20259:32 PM GMT+2

 

 

WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Pfizer will cut the price of all prescription drugs in the Medicaid program for low-income Americans and sell new medicines at a "most-favored- nation" price in exchange for tariff relief.

 

Trump also said he expects other drugmakers to follow suit.

 

Shares of Pfizer and Eli Lilly, which was flagged favorably by Trump during his press conference, rose, as did those of Merck, Amgen, AbbVie and GSK on investor relief that they would escape the worst of tariffs.

 

U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere.

 

Pfizer will be part of the White House's new direct-to-consumer website for Americans to buy drugs, called TrumpRx, that will launch in 2026.

 

"The United States is done subsidizing the healthcare of the rest of the world," Trump said, speaking at an event in the Oval Office accompanied by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others.

 

On September 25, Trump announced he would impose a 100% tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products from October 1, unless a drugmaker is building a manufacturing plant in the U.S. The U.S. has been doing a national security investigation, or 232 probe, to determine tariffs for pharmaceuticals.

 

Pfizer is the first drugmaker to announce a deal. Trump sent letters to 17 leading drug companies in July telling them to slash prices to match those paid overseas - a policy the president has called most-favored-nation pricing. He asked them to respond with binding commitments by September 29.

 

Sources at five large drugmakers told Reuters the Trump-Pfizer announcement caught their companies by surprise and that they watched the White House press conference to gauge its implications.

 

Pfizer will invest $70 billion in research and development and domestic manufacturing and received a three-year grace period during which its products will not be subject to the pharmaceutical-targeted tariffs, "as long as, of course, we move the products here," Bourla said...........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/trump-announce-pfizer-drug-price-cuts-2025-09-30/