Trump asks drug manufacturers to reduce US prices within 60 days

US President Donald Trump, Secretary of the US Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Dr. Mehmet OZ, administrator for the centers for Medicare & Medicaid services, David Sacks, AI & Crypto Czar and Amy Gleason, Acting Administrator, Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). 2025.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he asked great pharmaceutical companies to take measures within the next 60 days to reduce the US medicinal products prices.

On Thursday in the truth social, Trump published individual letters that he sent 17 drugmakers: AbbviePresent AmgenPresent AstrazenecaBoehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers SquibbPresent Eli LillyEmd Serono, Genentech, GileadPresent GSKPresent Johnson & JohnsonPresent MerchantPresent NovartisPresent Novo NordiskPresent PfizerPresent RegeneroneAnd Sanofi.

Trump threatened to “use every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from further abusive drug pricing practices” when companies refuse to maintain. He asked for every company around September 29 to commit to its various goals.

The letters to Trump in May signed an executive regulation that revives a controversial plan that is known as the “most preferred nation” policy, which aims to reduce the drug costs by connecting the prices of some medicinal products to the significantly lower abroad. It was Trump’s latest efforts to contain the US prescription medication prices that are on average two to three times higher than that in other industrialized nations – and up to 10 times more than in certain countries, according to the Rand Corp., a thought factory for public order.

The Press spokeswoman of the White House, Karoline Leavitt, holds the letter from US President Donald Trump to the CEO of Eli Lilly, David Ricks, during a press conference in the White House in Washington, DC, USA, July 31, 2025.

Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

In the letters on Thursday, Trump said that drugmakers had proposed potential solutions for high US medicinal products prices. But he said that these suggestions “promised more: postponement of the guilt and inquiries from changes in the guidelines that would lead to billions of dollars of handouts for the industry”.

He said he would only take on commitments from drug manufacturers who deliver “American families immediately relief from the strongly inflated drug prices and an end to the free trip of the American innovation by European and other developed nations”. Trump said that a joint effort to reduce the US drug prices is the “most effective way” for companies that the government and patients were.

The shares of the drug makers fell after the announcement on Thursday. Bristol Myers Squibb and Novo Nordisk’s shares fell by almost 5%, the shares of GSK and Merck fell by more than 3%and the shares of Sanofi fell by more than 8%.

Here are the steps that Trump asks to take companies:

• He asked the drug manufacturers to provide their complete portfolio of existing medication at the lowest price for other industrialized ores what he describes the most suitable price as a award winner-for each individual Medicaid patient.
• Trump also asked companies to contract with the United States to guarantee that Medicare, Medicaid and Commercial payers will receive the most -shaped nation prices for all new medication at the start and in the future.
• He asked companies to negotiate toughter with what he called “foreign freeloading nations”, and added that US trade policy would try to support these efforts. He said
• He asked the drug manufacturers to adopt models that sell their medication directly to consumers or companies, which is effectively eliminated and ensure that all Americans receive the most suitable prices for nation that companies offer third parties.

Alex Schriver, Senior Vice President of Phrma, the largest lobby group in the industry, said: “The import of foreign price controls would undermine American leadership and violate patients and workers.”

The group added that US civil servants to reduce the price differences with other countries, “drive up the cost of health care for Americans and to cause foreign country to pay their appropriate share for innovative medication”. Phrma refers to pharmacies performance manager, insurer and other payers.

In separate statements, the spokesman for Pfizer, Novo Nordisk and Novartis said that they are working to find solutions that help the Americans with access and drugs they need.

Pfizer said that the company’s discussions with the Trump administration and the congress were “productive”. Novartis said it checked the letter.

The announcement is made just a few days after Astrazeneca announced that certain drugs in the USA propose for price reductions, and that the Trump administration is considering these suggestions. Astrazeneca added that it was considering selling some medication directly to patients, which is a step that companies like Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb have difficulties in the United States to afford medication

The drug manufacturers also prepare for the planned tariffs of the President for pharmaceuticals imported in the USA