A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump says he's making good on his promise to lower drug prices for Americans. He announced a deal with Pfizer on Tuesday and also announced a new government website called TrumpRx. NPR pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin is following this. Hey, Sydney. So what's in this deal?
SYDNEY LUPKIN, BYLINE: The splashiest part involves Pfizer selling its drugs, such as Xeljanz for rheumatoid arthritis, directly to consumers at a discount. Consumers could access the deals through a website operated by the federal government called TrumpRx. Trump has talked about bringing drug prices in line with what other developed countries pay and making those other countries pay what he calls their fair share. Here's Trump at the press conference.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The United States is done subsidizing the health care of the rest of the world. It's a big thing. This is - I can't tell you how big this is.
LUPKIN: The deal also includes discounts for Medicaid and a pledge from Pfizer to sell new drugs at the same price in the U.S. as in other developed countries. Trump says similar deals with other drugmakers are in the works.
MARTÍNEZ: How did President Trump get the drugmakers to come to the table?
LUPKIN: Yeah. It started with an executive order back in May on what the president calls most favored nation drug pricing. That would link U.S. prices to those elsewhere. Over the summer, he upped the ante with letters to 17 drugmakers that gave them 60 days to come up with plans and then came closed-door negotiations. During the press conference, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters that negotiations went late into the night. Pfizer's CEO, Albert Bourla, was at the press conference, too, by the way. He said this deal came with a three-year grace period from certain tariffs, and he added that tariffs were the, quote, "most powerful tool to motivate behaviors." So it's clear the threat of them played a role here, though the many details of the deal aren't public.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. But what would this mean for consumers then?
LUPKIN: You know, a lot of them probably won't notice a difference. Here's Ameet Sarpatwari, a drug policy expert at Harvard Medical School.
AMEET SARPATWARI: I think it's more window dressing than the transformational sort of reforms that are needed to really provide relief to Americans struggling with high prices.
LUPKIN: In Medicaid, for instance, beneficiaries already pay very little or nothing for drugs, and it's not yet clear how much money the Medicaid part of the deal would save taxpayers. As for TrumpRx, direct-to-consumer prices mean that consumers are not using their health insurance. So while on average prices may drop 50% through TrumpRx, that's still 50% off a big number, and it still might be unaffordable. Insurance copays could be cheaper. But if someone needs a drug that isn't covered by insurance and it's offered on TrumpRx, it might be an option.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So when is TrumpRx supposed to get going?
LUPKIN: Yeah. The trumprx.gov website is supposed to launch in early 2026, and the new Medicaid prices are supposed to take effect around the same time. As for the promise of launching new drugs at the same price in the U.S. as abroad, that's an ongoing process. In fact, some other companies have already said they'll do that. Bristol Myers Squibb, for instance, says its new schizophrenia drug will be sold at the same price in the U.K. as it is here, but that won't save American patients any money.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin. Thanks a lot.
LUPKIN: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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