Trump secures agreements with major drugmakers to lower Medicaid prescription costs for Americans

President Donald Trump announced Friday his administration has reached new agreements with some of the world’s largest drug manufacturers aimed at lowering prescription drug costs for Americans. 

Speaking from the Roosevelt Room, Trump revealed nine additional drug manufacturers have agreed to the administration’s most-favored-nation pricing initiative, bringing the total to 14 of the 17 largest leading companies in the world. 

The agreement reached with the nine companies also encompasses $150 billion in combined new investment commitments in domestic manufacturing, research and development of pharmaceuticals. 

"For the American people and patients, this represents the greatest victory for patient affordability in the history of American healthcare," Trump said. "By far, and every single American will benefit."

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Friday’s announcement ushered in deals with Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead, GSK, Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi—signifying a successful bargain between the manufacturers and the Trump administration. 

In July, Trump penned letters to the leaders of the 17 largest drug manufacturers looking to strike a deal to keep drug costs for those enrolled in the government's Medicaid health program below those of other high-income countries. 

Several of the current signees have also agreed to donate active pharmaceutical ingredients to America's Strategic Active pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve (SAPIR SAPIR) to aid in the country’s disaster response to potential pandemics, natural catastrophes or national security emergencies. 

"It's really what it is, to a large extent, national security," Trump said. "You can't continue to pay 13, 14 times more than other countries and think you're going to have security."

Previously, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Serrano, Novo Nordisk and Lilly had signed onto deals with the Trump administration to keep drug prices manageable for low-income Americans. 

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Trump has routinely made prescription drug costs a keystone of his administration’s efforts, often focusing on the disparity between prices in the U.S. and other wealthy countries, with analysts noting Medicaid—which accounts for 10% of the country’s drug spending—already benefits from significant manufacturer discounts, according to Reuters. 

"Every president for a generation has promised to reduce drug prices, but they were talking about a little bit," Trump said. "I am the only one of them to ever even think in terms of favored nations, and that's what this is. … We are now ‘a most favorite nation.’"

"I also want to thank the leaders of all of the countries that had to pay a little more so that we were treated fairly. I really do," he continued. "They knew the alternative was not much of an alternative because if they didn't do it, we were going to charge them tariffs, and the tariffs would have been much more severe … As soon as they realized about the tariffs, then they did it very easily."

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Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy described the deal as "historic," noting his Democratic 29-year-old son called and told him it was "the best achievement that could happen to our country."

"This is something Bernie Sanders has been clamoring for, for 25 years," Kennedy said. "[Something] Elizabeth Warren has been clamoring for [and former President] Joe Biden promised the American people. [Former] President Obama [and former] President Clinton all promised to do this for the American people. … Everybody recognized how unfair this was. We were paying for all the innovation in this country, and the rest of the world was free riding on it."

"I'm very grateful to all the CEOs who saw the sense in this, who understood the injustice and the unsustainability system, and who put public health, and particularly the public health of Americans, ahead of some of their other priorities. All of them came to the table," he added. "I can tell you, by the end of this term … Americans will be paying the lowest price in the world on 95% of drugs. … Nobody has done anything for affordability greater than this."

Trump also announced the administration’s new website, TrumpRX.gov, is set to launch early next year in an effort to lower prescription drug prices for Americans. A message listed on the site currently reads, "Coming soon. January 2026."