AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot shakes hands with President Trump in the Oval Office as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looks on.
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AstraZeneca became the second drugmaker to reach an agreement with the Trump administration to offer lower prices to Medicaid and offer some of its drugs at a discount through TrumpRxA government website designed to facilitate direct-to-consumer sales.
“In other words, we get the lowest price in the world,” President Trump said at a news conference in the Oval Office on Friday. The centerpiece of the deal is most-favored nation treatment for drugs sold by Medicaid. This would link Medicaid prices to the lower prices paid in other developed countries.
As part of the deal, AstraZeneca will also offer discounts of up to 80% off list prices on direct sales to consumers. according to the company statement. Its products include inhalers such as Bevespi AerSphere for people with COPD and Airsupra for people with asthma. AstraZeneca, which is based in Britain, also said it would expand drug production and research in the United States.
In exchange for these commitments, the pharmaceutical company will receive a three-year waiver of certain tariffs.
The White House unveiled its plan for TrumpRx and similar the deal with Pfizer will take place on September 30. The website will help patients access medications at lower prices without going through health insurance.
TrumpRx is part of a broader initiative that the administration says aims to bring the prices Americans pay more in line with those paid in other developed countries.
The announcement follows a May executive order and letters sent to 17 drug companies over the summer urging them to push them to voluntarily lower prices.
The TrumpRx website is expected to launch sometime in 2026 and will direct consumers to pharmaceutical companies' direct-to-consumer websites to fulfill orders.
The impact of the Trump administration's deals with drug companies on consumers is unclear. For example, Medicaid and its beneficiaries already pay some of the lowest prices for drugs. And people with health insurance will be able to spend less on drugs through copays rather than buying them directly from AstraZeneca.
AstraZeneca also said on Thursday that it would invest an additional $500 million in a new manufacturing facility in Virginia, increasing the investment to $4.5 billion. It's part of a $50 billion investment announced in July to expand manufacturing capacity in California, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas and Virginia, as well as other research and development.
“To all the pharmaceutical companies, we say to all of you: pick up a shovel,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said during a news conference.
Trump said his administration has received a total of $18 trillion in commitments to shift pharmaceutical production. NPR could not immediately independently confirm that figure.
