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United States President Donald Trump on Thursday urged 17 major pharmaceutical companies to adopt “Most-Favored-Nation (MFN)” pricing for American patients within 60 days.
Trump sent letters to executives at Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, AstraZeneca, Merck, Eli Lilly, and other drugmakers, demanding immediate action to end what he called “global freeloading” on American innovation.
The initiative builds on Trump’s May 12 executive order that targeted prescription drug pricing disparities between the U.S. and other developed nations.
He said drug prices in the U.S. are “up to three times higher on average than elsewhere for the identical medicines.”
“This unacceptable burden on hardworking American families ends with my Administration,” Trump wrote.
In letters published on his platform Truth Social, Trump told the companies to lower prices or face punishment, moving to provide Americans relief from prescription costs significantly higher than in other countries.
“If you refuse to step up we will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices,” Trump wrote, without specifying potential consequences.
The initiative follows an executive order Trump signed in May to address U.S. drug prices, which the White House said are more than three times what people in similarly developed countries pay.
Trump said the companies’ responses to the executive order have so far been “more of the same: shifting blame,” with policy changes that benefit the industry rather than consumers.
At the center of Trump’s plan is the MFN policy, which ties the cost of drugs sold in the U.S. to the lowest price paid by other countries for the same medication.
Trump said he wants this pricing model extended to medications used by older Americans under the government-backed Medicaid program. He also called for the policy to apply to newly launched drugs.
“Americans are demanding lower drug prices and they need them today,” Trump wrote.
Trump outlined four specific requirements for the companies:
— Extend MFN pricing to Medicaid patients
— Guarantee MFN prices for newly launched drugs
— Return increased foreign revenues to American patients through lower prices
— Participate in direct-purchasing models
“Moving forward, the only thing I will accept from drug manufacturers is a commitment that provides American families immediate relief from the vastly inflated drug prices,” Trump said.
Trump set a Sept. 29 deadline for binding commitments, assigning Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. and Medicare Administrator Mehmet Oz to lead implementation efforts.
“Make no mistake: a collaborative effort towards achieving global pricing parity would be the most effective path for companies, the government, and American patients,” he wrote. “But if you refuse to step up, we will deploy every tool in our arsenal.”
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