White House set to unveil new drug pricing pacts with major pharma firms

The White House is expected to announce a fresh round of drug pricing agreements on Monday, according to an administration official, as part of its ongoing effort to lower prescription medicine costs for Americans. The announcement is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET at an event focused on healthcare affordability.

Bayer, Takeda, CSL, and several mid-size biotechnology companies are anticipated to sign onto the new deals, which would extend the administration's earlier agreements with 17 of the world's largest drugmakers, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Amgen. Those earlier pacts, struck last year, introduced "most-favored-nation" pricing, aligning U.S. prices with those paid in other developed countries.

Under the previous agreements, participating companies offered reduced prices for federal health programs and made certain medicines available directly to patients through a Trump-branded website, in exchange for tariff relief. U.S. patients currently pay nearly three times more for prescription drugs than patients in other developed nations.

Bayer and Takeda declined to comment on the expected deals, while CSL and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Smaller and mid-sized drugmakers have been slower to join the pricing initiative. A June report found that only Japan's Astellas had confirmed applying for the Medicaid pricing program at that point, with executives at companies like Ionis Pharmaceuticals citing limited financial incentive to participate.

The financial impact of the new agreements remains unclear. Medicaid already receives steep statutory discounts from drugmakers, and most enrollees pay minimal out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions.

The administration has projected that its broader drug pricing push, including the earlier large-company deals, could save $64.3 billion in federal and state spending over the next decade, though that estimate remains speculative. The White House has held several high-profile events with pharmaceutical executives this year to promote its healthcare cost initiatives ahead of the midterm elections.