President Donald Trump announced agreements with nine additional pharmaceutical manufacturers to lower U.S. drug prices.
President Donald Trump on Monday announced a major expansion of his push to slash prescription drug prices, saying new agreements with pharmaceutical companies are projected to save Americans more than $600 billion and end years of America paying far more than other countries.
The most favored nation deals involve 26 drug manufacturers that account for 89% of the branded prescription drug market, according to the White House.
"Our most favored nations' discounts represent the largest reduction in prescription drug prices in the history of our country," Trump said in an Oval Office announcement alongside officials from some of the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies.
The White House said the agreements are designed to ensure Americans pay prices in line with the lowest rates that drugmakers charge in other developed countries.
"Under that most favored nation agreement, we now pay the lowest price paid by other countries anywhere in the world," Trump said.
The announcement marks another step in Trump's second-term effort to drive down prescription costs and confront a long-standing gap between drug prices in the U.S. and overseas.
A 2024 Rand Corp. study found U.S. prescription drug prices averaged nearly three times those in other countries, while prices for branded drugs were more than four times as high.
Trump has argued for years that Americans have been forced to subsidize cheaper medicine abroad, with drug companies making an outsized share of their profits from U.S. patients.
"We were ripped off by the pharmaceutical companies, and we were ripped off more than anything by other countries throughout the world," Trump said.
The president said the U.S. consumes just 13% of the world's prescription drugs but accounts for 75% of pharmaceutical industry profits.
Trump has made reducing prescription drug prices a major domestic priority, pressuring manufacturers to offer Americans the same favorable pricing available in other wealthy nations.
The White House called Monday's agreements a "major step forward," and Trump said the deals are projected to deliver more than $600 billion in savings for Americans.
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The drug-price initiative also gives Republicans a pocketbook issue heading into November's midterm elections as the party fights to maintain its congressional majorities.
Trump said taking on the pharmaceutical industry has come at a personal cost, telling those gathered in the Oval Office that he "lost some very good friends" while demanding better deals on prescription drugs. He did not elaborate.
