Trump Secures Medicaid Pricing Deals With 26 Pharmaceutical Firms
President Trump announced nine new drug pricing agreements on Aug. 31, bringing his administration's total to 26 pharmaceutical companies and covering 89% of the US branded drug market.
The latest signatories include Alcon, Astellas Pharma, BeOne Medicines, BridgeBio, CSL, Kyowa Kirin, Sun Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and UCB.
Under the deals, each company agreed to offer their drugs to every state Medicaid program at most-favored-nation (MFN) prices, meaning US prices now align with the lowest rates charged anywhere in the developed world.
US prescription drug prices average nearly three times higher than those in other developed nations, according to a 2024 Rand Corp. study, with branded drugs running more than four times higher.
"Our most favored nations' discounts represent the largest reduction in prescription drug prices in the history of our country."
President Donald Trump, Oval Office
The Council of Economic Advisers estimates total savings from all MFN deals will reach $600B over the next decade, though Reuters noted that figure is speculative. A narrower government estimate puts federal and state spending savings at $64.3B over the same period.
The deals aren't purely about pricing. The nine companies collectively committed to invest at least $19.6B in US manufacturing.
Several are also donating active pharmaceutical ingredients to the Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve, a stockpile designed to reduce US dependence on foreign drug supply chains.
UCB will contribute 163 tons of the anticonvulsant levetiracetam, while Teva will donate 45 metric tons of the antibiotic metronidazole and 4.8 tons of the blood pressure drug amlodipine.
Smaller companies took longer to commit
The new round notably skews toward mid-sized and international drugmakers. Reuters previously reported that smaller companies saw little financial incentive to join, since Medicaid already negotiates steep discounts under existing law and most Medicaid patients pay little out of pocket.
As recently as June, only Astellas had confirmed applying to the program among smaller firms. The earlier wave of deals, struck with giants like Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Amgen, began with Pfizer in Sept. 2025 and expanded rapidly through the end of that year.
Those companies offered lower prices in exchange for relief from tariff threats and the ability to sell directly to patients through TrumpRx.gov, a Trump-branded portal launched in Feb. 2026. Since launch, patients have saved more than $700M through the portal.
The administration is pressing Congress to pass what it calls the Great Healthcare Plan to lock in further pricing reforms.