On July 31, President Trump sent letters to some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world (AbbVie, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Regeneron, and Sanofi) asking them to fundamentally change drug pricing in the US. What was ‘the ask’? A White House Fact Sheet states:
Calling on manufacturers to provide MFN [most favored nation] prices to every single Medicaid patient.Requiring manufacturers to stipulate that they will not offer other developed nations better prices for new drugs than prices offered in the United States.Providing manufacturers with an avenue to cut out middlemen and sell medicines directly to patients, provided they do so at a price no higher than the best price available in developed nations.Using trade policy to support manufacturers in raising prices internationally provided that increased revenues abroad are reinvested directly into lowering prices for American patients and taxpayers.
The President is calling this approach “America First Prescription Drug Pricing.” The Trump approach doubles down on the White House’s Most Favored Nation executive order from May 12, 2025.
What happens if companies do not comply?
The letters inform manufacturers that if they “refuse to step up,” the federal government “will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices.”
How will life sciences companies respond? Stay tuned to find out.
