White House Touts 3.1% Drop in Prescription Drug Prices, Steepest Since 1963

The White House is highlighting a 3.1% dip in prescription drug prices over the past year, calling it the "steepest drop since 1963" and evidence that President Trump's pressure on drug companies is working. The administration said the decline is the largest annual decrease in more than 60 years, as its "Most Favored Nation" policies take hold.

Over the past year, President Trump pressured major drugmakers into reducing what they sought from government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, while establishing a new platform called "TrumpRx" that lists discounts for people without insurance who are paying out of pocket. The president won concessions by threatening drug companies with massive tariffs if they did not align their prices with those paid by other major industrialized nations. His threats resulted in a parade of corporate executives traveling to the Oval Office for televised pledges to lower costs, including specific offers to reduce cash bills for GLP-1 drugs used for diabetes and weight loss such as Ozempic and Wegovy, as well as for the fertility drug Gonal-F.

Pfizer committed in September to offer "TrumpRx" discounts for a range of products, including a savings of 85% for the menopause pill Duavee, lowering costs to about $30. The company also shaved 85% off the price of Tobias, used to treat overactive bladders, dropping costs to $42, and slashed 80% off the price of eczema ointment Eucrisia, to $162 per tube. The drug giant agreed to cut 50% off the cost of migraine drug Zavzpret, to about $600 per month without insurance, and to give a 40% discount for rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz, bringing monthly costs to $3,644.

The Trump-brokered deals, which Congress is considering codifying, follow former President Joe Biden's Medicare renegotiations for the top 10 most common drugs, which may have contributed to the price declines. A White House spokesman called that notion "idiotic and unfounded."

The administration projects that the Most Favored Nation initiative will save Americans $500 billion over the next decade, while TrumpRx continues adding discounted prescriptions, including hundreds of new generic medications, saving Americans hundreds of millions of dollars already. President Trump has also threatened to haul in "rich" health insurance CEOs next to force them to slim their own profits.