Trump Strikes Deal With Nine Big Pharma Companies to Cut Prices for Americans

President Donald Trump announced deals with nine major pharmaceutical companies on Friday that will cut prices of their products for the government's Medicaid program and cash payers.

The Details: Among the nine who signed on and will offer "most favored nation" pricing to the US were Merck, Sanofi, Amgen, and others. The companies will also sell certain drugs on the TrumpRx website, which will launch in January. The site will offer those paying cash available medicines at a discount. Trump also announced he will be meeting with insurance companies in the coming weeks to try to achieve "reasonable health care without having to cut them out."

For Context: Lowering drug prices for Americans has been one of Trump's long-standing objectives. In May, Trump signed an executive order announcing aims to cut drug prices by 30% to 80% through "most favored nation" pricing, under which the US would pay the same prices as the nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the world. In July, Trump sent letters to 17 major drugmakers demanding they lower prices, leading to deals with five. All nine companies that signed on Friday were among the remaining 12. On December 1, the US and UK reached a deal in which the UK agreed to pay about 25% more for US pharmaceuticals in return for a three-year tariff exemption on its pharmaceutical exports to the US.

Key Quote: Trump said at a press conference with pharma executives, "We were subsidizing the entire world. We're not doing it anymore."

How The Media Covered It: Outlets across the spectrum mostly authored similar headlines, though at times included biased analysis or framing in article bodies. CNN (Lean Left bias) wrote that "many experts are skeptical about how much Americans will benefit." Reuters (Center) prominently noted that "US patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines" and that Trump is trying "to align US costs with those in other wealthy nations." The Center Square (Lean Right) framed its article similarly to Reuters.

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