Trump Reaches Deals to Slash Prescription Drug Prices

Washington, D.C.

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a series of landmark agreements with major pharmaceutical companies aimed at dramatically reducing prescription drug prices for American patients. The announcements, made at a White House press briefing on December 19, 2025, mark one of the most ambitious efforts by a U.S. administration to address rising drug costs.

According to officials, nine major pharmaceutical companies including Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi have agreed to lower prices on a range of medications for patients enrolled in Medicaid, the government program that provides health coverage for low-income Americans. Price cuts are expected to affect drugs used to treat chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, asthma, hepatitis, HIV, multiple sclerosis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, with reductions in some cases reaching up to 70 percent.

These agreements also come as part of the administration’s push for “most-favored-nation” pricing, which aims to align U.S. drug costs more closely with prices in other developed nations. In addition to Medicaid pricing, the White House unveiled plans for TrumpRx, a federal website that will link patients to discounted prescription drugs offered by participating manufacturers. While the platform will not sell drugs directly, it is expected to make lower-cost medications available to both Medicaid enrollees and cash-paying consumers.

Earlier this year, a similar deal was struck with Pfizer, which agreed to reduce prices on several of its products in exchange for a temporary exemption from proposed pharmaceutical tariffs. This agreement served as a model for the new round of negotiations, encouraging additional companies to join the initiative. Collectively, the participating firms have pledged over $150 billion in U.S. research, development, and manufacturing investments, with Merck alone committing approximately $70 billion to domestic projects.

President Trump hailed the agreements as historic. “We were subsidizing the entire world,” he stated. “We’re not doing it anymore,” emphasizing that the price reductions would benefit both government-insured patients and those without insurance coverage.

While supporters have praised the initiative for potentially lowering out-of-pocket costs for millions of Americans, critics warn that the scope of the deals may be limited and that the actual impact on overall healthcare costs remains to be seen. Analysts also note that the agreements primarily affect Medicaid and direct-to-consumer pricing, leaving broader insurance markets largely untouched for now.

As the administration moves forward with the TrumpRx initiative, policymakers and industry observers will monitor how effectively these agreements are implemented and whether they lead to sustainable, long-term relief for U.S. patients facing some of the highest drug prices in the world.

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