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9 more Big Pharma companies trade drug price cuts for tariff relief

The news: Nine more Big Pharma companies struck deals with the Trump administration to cut prices on select drugs in exchange for a three-year tariff exemption on US drug imports.

  • The nine drugmakers are: Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead, GSK, Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi.
  • The drugs subject to price cuts include medicines to treat diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, asthma, COPD, and other conditions.

Catch up quick: Several large drugmakers have made deals with the administration to lower prices of some drugs in exchange for tariff relief and other negotiated concessions.

  • Most recently, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly struck a deal with the Trump administration to lower their GLP-1 prices in exchange for expanded Medicare and Medicaid coverage.
  • Prices of select drugs will be lowered for cash-pay consumers via TrumpRx, a new government-run online marketplace that links patients to discounted medication purchases.
  • Pharma companies have committed to domestic manufacturing and will launch new drugs at “most-favored nation” rates. These prices align with those in other developed countries and will also be offered to state Medicaid programs.
  • Some drugmakers have secured FDA priority review vouchers for certain medicines being launched in the US.
  • The deals include a three-year tariff reprieve on US drug imports.

Why it matters: 14 of the 17 Big Pharmas targeted by Trump’s August pricing demands have reached government deals. Trump said in a Friday press briefing that agreements with the remaining three companies—AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals—will be announced soon.

Whether lower list prices actually save patients money depends on their specific insurance coverage or their ability to pay the discounted cash price.

  • Insurance and Medicare coverage almost always beat TrumpRx pricing.
  • However, for drugs like GLP-1s with uneven private-plan coverage and restrictions, consumers could benefit from the lower prices negotiated in these deals.
  • The discounts will be most beneficial to Americans without health insurance (~8% of the population)—but this group is also already most burdened by healthcare costs.

Implications for pharma companies: Trump’s tariff threats have successfully forced drugmakers to cut prices. The revenue impact on Big Pharma will vary by company, depending on factors such as patent exposure and how much revenue products generate from high-exposure payer channels (e.g., Medicare and commercial plans) to offset cash-pay losses. Ultimately, manufacturers are accepting these price cuts as a reluctant trade-off to escape the greater damage tariffs would cause.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Not a subscriber? Click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.

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