Trump announces Medicaid drug pricing deals with 9 firms

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump is anticipated to unveil additional drug-pricing deals aimed at making healthcare more affordable for Americans, according to a White House official. The event will be held at 3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT) on Monday, as reported by The Financial Times, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The deals will include Bayer, Takeda, CSL, and several smaller biotech companies, as previously announced by Reuters.

Currently, U.S. patients pay significantly more for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed countries. Trump has been urging drugmakers to reduce their prices, bringing them in line with those paid in other nations. Germany's Bayer and Japan's Takeda did not respond to requests for comment, while CSL from Australia did not immediately return Reuters' inquiries.

These new agreements will build upon the earlier deals struck with 17 of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Amgen. These companies agreed to offer lower prices comparable to the most-favored-nation pricing, which applies the lowest prices paid by developed nations. In return for tariff relief, the drugmakers committed to cutting some prices for federal health programs and selling medications directly to patients via a Trump-branded website.

While the exact savings for the government and patients remain unclear, the White House has been actively promoting its efforts on healthcare costs through high-profile events with pharmaceutical executives. The administration claims that its broader drug pricing initiatives, encompassing the earlier deals with major pharmaceutical companies, could potentially save $64.3 billion in federal and state spending over the next decade, although this figure is speculative.