NBC News
The president, Donald Trump, announced on Tuesday that his government has reached an agreement with the Pfizer pharmacist to voluntarily sell some of their medications at lower prices to Medicaid patients.
As part of the agreement, Trump said Pfizer will sell some of his medications on a new “direct to the consumer” website called Trumprx. The Republican president said that he would be operated by the federal government, but offered few details about how it would work.
The agreement that Pfizer has reached with the White House will grant the company a three -year grace period regarding the tariffs Trump plans to apply to the pharmaceutical products manufactured abroad, which is expected to enter into force on Wednesday.
The price reduction will cover “the vast majority” of Pfizer’s primary care medications, together with other specialized brands, which will be offered with discounts on average of 50% and will reach up to 85%, said a company spokesman.
This includes the medication for menopause Duaveewhich will be available for just 30 dollars, which represents an 85%reduction, added the spokesman. Medicine for hyperactive bladder Tobias will fall 85%, to 42 dollars, while its skin ointment Eucrisa 80%will be reduced, establishing in 162.
Trump said that, from now on, all the new medications that Pfizer introduces in the US market will be sold at lower prices.
“This is a really important ad,” Trump said from the White House. “It’s something that most people considered impossible.” The Republican suggested that more agreements would be closed with other pharmaceutical companies, but did not mention the name of any.
However, several experts were not sure that the agreement was significant saving for Americans.
Stacie Dusetzina, professor of health policies at the University of Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, said that direct sales to the consumer “will not help at all the average person to get lower prices.”
Normally, with direct sales to the consumer, patients must pay their pocket, instead of using their insurance.
“These ads serve as good advertising for pharmaceutical companies, but they are rather a trick that only helps a very small number of people,” Dusetzina added.
“On the other hand, it is likely that the average American will be harmed by the largest policies driven by the administration, including a 100% tariff on medicines,” Dusetzin said on the general agreement. “This will increase prices for consumers, instead of reducing them.”
The prices of prescription medications are notoriously higher in the United States than in other rich countries, including generic ones.
A survey conducted in 2022 by KFF, a non -partisan health policies research group, revealed that three out of four American adults claim that the cost of medicines is unaffordable.
Pfizer, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the United States, manufactures a wide range of medicines, including the anticoagulant Eliquiscancer medication Ibrance and the vaccine against the COVID-19. Eliquis was one of those included in the first round of negotiations on the prices of Medicare medicines during the Biden administration. The negotiated price will enter into force in 2026.
The agreement is part of a broader Trump initiative to implement a “most favored nation” price for recipe medications, which means that the United States will pay more than the lowest prices that are charged in other rich countries.
In May, Trump signed an executive order in which the initiative was outlined, which ordered federal officials to carry out a plan that links the amount that the government pays for certain medications at the prices paid abroad.
Pfizer is the first pharmaceutical company to announce an agreement within the framework of this plan.
The company will also announce an investment of 70,000 million dollars in research and development and national manufacturing.
