Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Medicare & Medicaid services (left to right), Albert Burl, General Director Pfizer, President Trump and Martin Makari, Commissioner of the Product and Medication Management, discuss the initiative for drug prices on Tuesday.
Francis Chung/Policy/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Francis Chung/Policy/Bloomberg via Getty Images
President Trump on Tuesday announced a transaction with Pfizer for the sale of his medicines directly to consumers at safety prices. They will be available through a website controlled by the federal government called Trumprx.gov. He said that similar transactions with other drug producers are in work.
The new website is part of a wider initiative, which, according to the administration, is aimed at bringing the prices paid by Americans, including patients with Medicaid, are more consistent with those that are paid in other developed countries. The idea is sometimes called Price with the most favorable nationsPfizer agreed to charge the same price for new medicines in developed countries and the United States.
“American consumers subsidize research and development for the whole planet,” Trump said to the press conference, which was joined by his healthcare and PFIZER Director General Albert Burl. “They put on all this on us, and yet they were also beneficiaries. So it was changed. “
“I think that today we are turning the tide, and we are changing the unfair situation,” Burla said from Pfizer during a briefing.
It is expected that the Trumprx.gov website will be launched somewhere in 2026 and will bring consumers to the websites of direct pharmaceutical companies for consumers to fulfill orders, according to senior administration officials who informed journalists for anonymity.
Direct prices for Pfizer medicines for Trumprx.gov will average 50% lower, according to The press release of the companyThe field but there were not enough important details about how discounts were calculated. “The specific terms of the agreement remain confidential,” the report said.
The discount website will be for patients who do not use insurance
Other countries are mainly paid for signature drugs in prescription than in the United States, because they have state healthcare systems that set the prices for medicines. In general, the United States does not set prices, so pharmaceutical companies can be charged with the market.
The web site will be available only for patients who do not use their medical insurance, according to one of the government officials who are anonymously briefing reporters. And even then, medicines for discounts can be inaccessible because they are based on high prices for a list of drugs. Consumers with medical insurance may well pay less at the pharmacy.
As a result, the average consumer will probably not benefit from the transaction of the Trump administration, says Amit SarpatveariAssociate Professor of the population at the Harvard Medical School, which specializes in pharmaceutical policy.
“I think this is more stunning than what the president advertises,” he says. “I think this is more than the reforms of the transformation that are necessary in order to really ensure relief for Americans fighting high prices.”
Pfizer Bourla General also promised to launch new medicines at the same price in the United States as in other developed countries, and offer medicines for Medicaid at prices with the most favorable nations, receiving praise from the Trump administration, which are the first general director to conclude a deal. “He really created a corporate liability template to put public health care to his individual interests,” said the Minister of Health Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Medicaid medicines are already low
Sarpatwari says that since Medicaid often pays low medicines in any case, and Medicaid beneficiaries pay for drugs very little, it is not clear whether they will bring this deal or save a lot of money to the taxpayers.
“This is an environment in which you can pretend that they make significant changes that do not really improve prices that Americans will pay for their medicines,” says Sarpatveari.
In May, the announcement on Tuesday followed the executive order of the Trump administration to reduce the prices of medicines. The president promised to force other countries to pay more for drugs. “Thus, we are going to go down a lot, but the world will rise a little,” he said during a briefing in the media on Tuesday, explaining that this would make global drug prices more fair.
During the summer, the Trump administration said that she was not satisfied with the fact that she had heard from pharmaceutical companies, so she sent letters 17 of them with a list of requirements, including reducing prices in Medicaid and launching new drugs that people in other countries pay. It also included the sale of drugs directly to consumers at lower prices.
The manufacturers had 60 days to do this voluntarily, or, the letter said: “If you refuse to disconnect, we will expand every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continuing insulting drug prices.”
The negotiation included the threat of tariffs related to the ongoing investigation of whether the pharmaceutical import of national security posed a pharmaceutical import. The transaction with Pfizer includes a three -year grace period of these tariffs, and its general director said that the company will invest $ 70 billion to rethink the production of drugs sold within the country. According to Burl, “the president is absolutely right.” This is the most powerful tool for motivating behavior. ”
