President Donald Trump announced the launch of the new direct-to-consumer drug purchasing platform TrumpRx on Thursday evening, marking a key pillar in his administration’s efforts to lower prescription drug costs.
The TrumpRx platform is an essential piece of the president’s Most Favored Nation drug pricing program, in which pharmaceutical companies, under the threat of tariffs, have agreed to lower their prices in the United States to match the lowest prices sold in other developed countries.
“This launch represents the largest reduction in prescription drug prices in history by many, many times, and it’s not even close,” Trump said in his address.
Healthcare affordability is the No. 1 concern for voters when they are asked about costs of living, according to a poll from the health policy group KFF. Roughly 2-in-3 voters said they were at least somewhat concerned about affording the costs of healthcare this year.
About a quarter of people reported struggling to pay for prescription drugs in a separate November KFF poll. According to AARP, 1-in-5 seniors do not take their medications as prescribed due to cost.
A fact sheet published by the White House in July said Americans pay three times more for brand-name prescriptions than people in other developed countries despite the fact that the U.S. makes up 75% of global pharmaceutical profits.
Trump said during the address that the TrumpRx platform and Most Favored Nations drug pricing are essential components of his “Great Healthcare Plan” aimed at making healthcare more affordable.
“This policy, which is a key pillar of the Great Healthcare Plan, is going to bring co-pays plummeting down and save Americans billions and billions of dollars, making healthcare much more affordable, like at a level that you couldn’t believe,” Trump said.
At least 16 drug manufacturers have negotiated with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to participate in the TrumpRx program, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and others.
National Design Studio Director Joe Gebbia, who led the website design, said 40 medications are on the platform at discounted prices.
Gebbia demonstrated how to find coupons on the website to present to a local pharmacy with the in vitro fertilization drug Gonal-F, made by EMD Serono, which has an 83% discount through TrumpRx.
EMD Serono, the maker of most medications used for in vitro fertilization and other assisted reproductive technologies, agreed with the Trump administration last fall to lower the prices and expand access to many of the medications in its portfolio.
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehemet Oz, whose agency oversees pharmaceutical pricing, said the reduced prices for IVF and other fertility medications will be a game-changer for families struggling with infertility.
“Mr. President, 1-in-3 families is having trouble having a baby. We’re going to have a lot of Trump babies with these costs,” Oz said. “Folks cannot afford these medications. It’s going to change their lives.”
Policy analysis expected the largest benefits of TrumpRx would be for those patients who do not use health insurance to purchase medications or whose medications are not covered under their insurance plans.
That includes fertility drugs as well as GLP-1 medications for diabetes and obesity.
Roughly 1-in-8 people currently take GLP-1 medications like Ozempic or Mounjarno for diabetes and Wegovy or Zepbound for obesity, made by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, respectively.
While most adults who have taken these GLP-1 medications say their insurance covered at least part of the costs of the drug, 27% of users with health insurance said in a November poll that they paid out of pocket for the expensive medication.
Trump said during the announcement that Novo Nordisk would be reducing its list price for Ozempic by 578%, from more than $1,000 per month to $199 without insurance.
Oz also said Novo Nordisk’s new weight loss medication pill, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration earlier this year, will be on the TrumpRx platform.
Trump has repeatedly credited his use of tariffs as the reason for the success of Most Favored Nations agreements because pharmaceutical companies are raising prices in European and other foreign markets to afford to lower prices in the U.S.
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Trump has said that if it were not for the threat of tariffs, other countries with socialized medicine systems would not have agreed to allow pharmaceutical companies to raise their prices.
“In many cases, the drug costs will go up by double and even triple for them, but they’re going way down for the United States, come all the way down by a difference of as much as 300%, 400%, 500%, even 600%, even more than that,” Trump said Thursday.
White House correspondents Naomi Lim and Christian Datoc contributed to this report
