White House unveils next round of MFN pricing deals with 9 midsized drugmakers
Some four months after the White House inked the last of its expected drug pricing deals with 17 of the industry’s top players, the U.S. government is back for round 2, this time lining up agreements with a host of medium-sized biopharmas under President Trump’s ‘most favored nation’ agenda.
A month after completing the final drug pricing agreements with 17 major pharmaceutical firms, the U.S. government is embarking on a second round of negotiations, targeting a group of medium-sized biopharmaceutical companies under President Trump's "most favored nation" pricing strategy. The companies involved in this new round include Alcon, Astellas Pharma, BeOne Medicines, BridgeBio, CSL, Kyowa Kirin, Sun Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and UCB, as per a White House fact sheet released on Monday.
Notably, this list features international players from India, Israel, Japan, and Australia, in addition to U.S.-based firms. These agreements aim to lower Medicaid prices for medications used in various conditions, such as hemophilia, Parkinson's disease, macular degeneration, glaucoma, liver disease, skin conditions, and several types of cancer.
While details about specific drugs covered and the exact discount rates remain undisclosed, the administration has pledged to align U.S. prescription costs with those of high-income countries, using pricing benchmarks from Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, and the U.K. The administration's pricing campaign aims to decrease prescription costs by basing them on net prices paid in these nations.
Although the administration has promised significant savings, the details of previous MFN deals have remained vague, leading to debates about their impact on medicine affordability for U.S. patients. The midsized drug manufacturers signing this second round of deals have also committed to investing $19.6 billion in American production over the next few years, and several have pledged to donate active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to the U.S. Strategy Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve (SAPIR), which aims to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers and bolster emergency supplies.
Several companies have pledged to increase or expand their manufacturing capabilities in the U.S., with UCB, Sun, Teva, Astellas, and Kyowa Kirin contributing specific amounts of API for various drugs. While the initial MFN deals included major pharmaceutical companies, this second round features only mid-sized firms, many of which have expressed relief from recent drug import tariffs and are expected to benefit from tariff immunity.
Written by urgent.news from Fierce Healthcare's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
