Trump announces new agreements with pharmaceutical firms to lower drug prices
Trump said CSL, Sun Pharmaceutical and UCB committed to supply medicines to Medicaid under most‑favoured‑nation terms, but details were not released.
President Donald Trump announced new agreements with several pharmaceutical companies aimed at lowering drug prices in the United States. He named Australian CSL, India’s Sun Pharmaceutical and Belgium’s UCB as participants in the deals.
According to Trump, the companies pledged to supply medicines to the federal Medicaid programme under so-called most-favoured-nation terms, a pricing arrangement intended to align U.S. payments with lower prices paid elsewhere.
White House statement leaves details unanswered
Speaking at a meeting at the White House, Trump called the initiative a significant step toward reducing costs. He said: "This is 'a huge discount that is expected to significantly lower health care costs'," the American president said.
However, the announcements left important questions open: it is not yet clear how many medicines are covered by the agreements or how large the savings for the government and patients will be.
The White House has not published the contract details that would allow independent analysts to estimate the scope of the discounts or the timeline for implementation.
Photo: press material from the event
