Pharma firms offer discounts of up to 85% to US patients

AstraZeneca has become the latest company to lower the cost of medicines for American patients. The company recently announced an agreement with President Donald Trump’s administration to lower the cost of prescription medicines for American patients “while preserving America’s cutting-edge biopharmaceutical innovation”. In July, US President Donald Trump sent letters to the leaders of 17 major pharmaceutical companies outlining how they should slash US prescription drug prices to match those paid overseas. CEO Pascal Soriot confirmed that the company voluntarily met all requests set out in the letter. As part of the agreement, AstraZeneca will provide Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) sales to eligible patients with prescriptions for chronic diseases at a discount of up to 80% off list prices. AstraZeneca will participate in the TrumpRx.gov direct purchasing platform, which will allow patients to purchase medicines at a reduced cash price from AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca has also reached an agreement to delay Section 232 tariffs for three years, enabling the company to fully onshore medicines manufacturing so that all of its medicines sold in America are made in America. This will be achieved through the company’s recently announced $50 billion investment in US medicines manufacturing and R&D over the next five years. Soriot said: “This new approach also helps safeguard America’s pioneering role as a global powerhouse in innovation and developing the next generation of medicines. It is now essential other wealthy countries step up their contribution to fund innovation.” Big pharma negotiates to avoid tariffs Earlier this year, Trump signed an Executive Order calling for large cuts to the prices of drugs in the US, to better match the prices paid by other countries, claiming that “drug manufacturers deeply discount their products to access foreign markets, and subsidise that decrease through enormously high prices in the US”. The announcement from AstraZeneca follows a similar one from Pfizer which also voluntarily agreed to meet the President’s four requests, to implement measures designed to ensure Americans receive comparable drug prices to those available in other developed countries and pricing newly launched medicines at parity with other key developed markets. Pfizer also said it will participate in a direct purchasing platform, TrumpRx.gov, that will allow American patients to purchase medicines at a significant discount. The large majority of the Company’s primary care treatments and some select specialty brands will be offered at savings that will range as high as 85% and on average 50%. Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer, stated that through this agreement the company had secured “a three-year grace period during which time Pfizer products under a Section 232 investigation won't face tariffs, provided we further invest in manufacturing in the US”. Other pharma companies have entered agreements with the US for lower drug prices. Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed cut prices for blood clot treatment Eliquis and plaque psoriasis drug Sotyktu, with the latter being offered at a more than 80% discount to the list price. Merck agreed to expand access to its in vitro fertilisation therapies and will offer DTC sales of its complete portfolio, including Gonal-f, Ovidrel and Cetrotide, at an 84% discount off list prices. EMD Serono will also participate in the TrumpRx.gov direct purchasing platform, which will go live in January 2026. A new model for pharma drug access Even just the threat of lower prices is impacting share value. Shares of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly dropped sharply following comments from Trump about reductions in the prices of weight loss drugs. Trump said price reductions would happen quickly following ongoing negotiations, stating that the cost could be reduced to about $150 per month, down from approximately $1,000. The companies had previously tried to lessen the blow, with Eli Lilly saying in June it would ship the two highest doses of its popular weight-loss drug Zepbound to cash-paying customers on its website, and Novo Nordisk committing to offer Ozempic for $499 per month to eligible cash-paying patients with type 2 diabetes in the US via its own pharmacy. The DTC model is a significant shift for the US pharmaceutical landscape, and there are likely to be teething problems as the new system is implemented. Wafaa Hassan, Senior Pharma Strategic Intelligence Analyst at GlobalData, commented: “From a drugmaker perspective, more challenges will occur following the initiatives such as new operational demands, margin pressure and potential friction with insurers. The likelihood of success will only depend on how well the pharma industry will navigate with these trade-offs in the upcoming months.” Diana Turner, Deputy Editor, DDW