WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has sent letters to the chief executives of 17 of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, ordering them to slash U.S. drug prices to match the lowest levels paid in other developed nations, or face federal action.
“The president signed an executive order earlier this year to solve the problem of exorbitant pharmaceutical pricing,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said today. “According to recent data, the prices that Americans have been paying for brand name drugs are more than three times the price other similar, similarly developed nations pay. The president is determined to solve this problem and took further action today. He has signed 17 letters to pharmaceutical companies' CEOs.”
The letters, sent Thursday and published by Trump on his TRUTH Social account, to companies including Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Regeneron, direct the drugmakers to:
- Apply “most-favored-nation” pricing to Medicaid and future product launches.
- Repay U.S. patients and taxpayers with excess revenue earned abroad.
- Offer direct-to-consumer purchasing for high-volume drugs at discounted rates comparable to those offered by insurers.
Trump gave the companies 60 days to submit binding commitments.
“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. “I look forward to your binding commitment to each of these goals by Sept. 29, 2025, and my team stands ready to assist with implementation questions.”
The move follows a May executive order directing federal health agencies to enforce most-favored-nation pricing for drugs. Shares of several targeted companies were volatile in Thursday trading, with Eli Lilly down 0.7% and AbbVie trimming earlier gains.
