The companies will agree to provide discounts on outpatient drugs to state Medicaid programs so that the prices states pay align with what the companies charge in foreign countries, the people said. Participation by state Medicaid programs is optional.
In exchange, the companies will be exempt from pilot programs forcing similar discounts in Medicare. Relief from tariffs is also part of some of the discussions, the people said.
The announcement is the latest instalment in a string of splashy White House events with pharmaceutical executives aimed at spotlighting healthcare affordability ahead of the midterm elections.
However, it’s unclear how much these agreements would save the federal government or low-income and disabled patients who participate in the program. Medicaid already gets substantial discounts from manufacturers by law, and patients in the program often don’t pay much out of pocket for prescriptions.
It’s also not known at this point which drugmakers will be agreeing to the price reductions.
In a statement, White House spokesman Kush Desai said “the Trump administration continues to make great progress negotiating additional most-favoured-nations deals to cut drug costs for American patients,” but added that any deals or events should be regarded as speculation until officially announced by the administration.
The administration struck so-called most-favoured-nation drug-pricing deals with 17 large pharmaceutical companies starting last year, including pharma giants like Pfizer Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. Those companies agreed to reduce prices for federal health insurance programs and offer their medications on a Trump-branded website in exchange for tariff relief.The announcement comes before the administration is expected to finalize pilot programs that would test tying what US government insurance programs pay for medicines to the prices companies charge to comparable countries abroad.
President Donald Trump and top health officials have touted the deals with larger companies in multiple Oval Office events. Trump has long griped that the US pays much more than other developed countries for the same medications.
Researchers affiliated with Harvard Medical School and the Urban Institute estimated that the Trump administration could save money if drugmakers agreed to offer Medicaid similar prices as they do abroad. They said the administration’s Medicaid drug pricing pilot could save states more than $8 billion annually if it were applied to 82 high-cost, brand-name drugs in an analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in July.
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