Drug prices mixed under Trump policy

President Donald Trump has announced several initiatives aimed at reducing prescription drug costs, a concern for about 60% of American adults who worry about affording medication for themselves or their families. A recent KFF nationwide poll found that over 80% of Americans consider prescription drug prices “unreasonable” and support increased regulation to lower costs.

Americans pay roughly three times as much as people in other countries for the same prescription drugs, prompting Trump to send letters to 17 drugmakers demanding they voluntarily lower prices.

In December, Trump announced that he had compelled pharmaceutical executives to agree to “most favored nation” pricing on Medicaid, the government coverage for low-income Americans. He also unveiled TrumpRx, a site where cash-paying patients can find discounted medicines.

The scope of these initiatives remains uncertain, with many details of the negotiations unclear, including which drugs are covered. Mark Cuban, a billionaire investor, said, “If it makes a difference to any patient, it’s a win,” noting discounted pricing on TrumpRx for branded fertility drugs and GLP-1 weight loss drugs.

Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said the Trump announcements are “one-off agreements made for publicity purposes” and don’t change the way drugs are priced. The agreements are opaque and unenforceable, he added.

A consulting firm, 46brooklyn, found that nearly 1,000 brand drugs went up in price in January 2026, with 2025 having the highest number of list price increases ever. Antonio Ciaccia, the company’s co-founder, said, “This is not a material change, it’s business as usual.”

In the first week of 2026, Pfizer raised the list prices of 71 drugs by an average of 5% and lowered the price of only one drug by 9.8%. The biggest win for patients has likely been the Trump administration’s quiet continuation of a Biden administration program: Medicare drug price negotiation for expensive drugs.

The negotiated discounts on the initial 10 drugs went into effect January 1, with reductions in price of over 50% on some products, resulting in estimated annual savings of $6 billion. This allowed the program to cap Medicare patients’ out-of-pocket spending on Part D prescription drugs at $2,000 for 2025 and beyond.

An additional 15 high-priced drugs, including popular weight loss and cancer drugs, were subject to negotiation in 2025, with discounted Medicare prices taking effect next year. Dr. Kesselheim said, “This is historic because it’s the first time the United States has negotiated prices, like every other developed country. And guess what? Innovation didn’t stop.”

However, these discounts benefit only Medicare enrollees, and the newer Trump administration initiatives help some other patients, but they are limited and require knowledge of how to access the discounts. Sean Tu, a patent law expert, noted that many of the discounted drugs on TrumpRx are brand-name drugs competing with far cheaper generic versions.

The TrumpRx site consists largely of Pfizer’s 30 drugs, with a smattering of discounts likely to generate headlines, including three fertility drugs from EMD Serono and a GLP-1 drug for weight loss and diabetes from Novo Nordisk.

In exchange for lowering prices, EMD Serono got tariffs lifted on its mostly overseas-produced medications and won the right to a sped-up U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process for a fertility drug.

While the TrumpRx discounts could reduce the cost of fertility treatment, the overall cost will continue to be out of reach for many, as drugs represent only a portion of the payment. Sean Tipton, spokesperson for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said the discounts could reduce the $15,000–$25,000 cost of a single fertility treatment cycle by about 10%.

In some European countries, each cycle costs about $3,000. The Trump administration’s initiatives have been met with skepticism, with some experts arguing that they do not address the underlying issues driving high drug prices in the United States.