WSJ: White House Unveils ‘TrumpRx’ Drug-Buying Site and a Pfizer Pricing Deal

WASHINGTON—President Trump on Tuesday unveiled a direct-to-consumer website for Americans to buy drugs, dubbed TrumpRx, and announced that Pfizer plans to offer some of its drugs on the site at a reduced rate.

Separately, Trump said Pfizer would offer all of its drugs to Medicaid at a reduced, “most favored nation” price, as well as introduce any new drugs to the U.S. market at the reduced prices. In return, the company gains a three-year grace period to exempt it from national security-related tariffs, as long as the company invests in domestic manufacturing, the company said.

“The American consumers have been subsidizing research and development costs for the entire planet,” Trump said in the Oval Office, flanked by top health officials and Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla. “It’s being changed as of today,” Trump said.

Specific details of Pfizer’s deal weren’t released, with the company saying specific terms remain confidential. Pharmaceutical companies are already required to offer to Medicaid the lowest prices offered to any other U.S. payer.

Shares of Pfizer traded more than 5% higher Tuesday afternoon.

The latest developments followed on Trump’s call for pharmaceutical companies to participate in a direct-to-consumer drug-buying platform, and to offer the “most favored nation” pricing—commonly understood as prices lower or comparable to those in other developed nations—in a July letter. He gave the companies until Sept. 29 to make commitments.

TrumpRx would allow people to pay cash for certain drugs directly from a government website, at a discounted price negotiated by the government. Trump said the site would be operated by the government. Pfizer, in a statement, referred to the website as TrumpRx.gov.

It’s unclear how many drugs in total would be offered, but the White House said some drugs included would be: Eucrisa, a dermatitis treatment; Xeljanz, a pill for rheumatoid arthritis; and Zavzpret, a treatment for migraines.

It also couldn’t be immediately determined whether the website would be useful for the majority of Americans who are already covered by private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. Trump said Pfizer had agreed to offer some of its most popular drugs on the platform at steep discounts, between 50% and 100% off. Pfizer said the majority of its “primary care treatments and some select specialty brands will be offered at savings that will range as high as 85% and on average 50%.”

More companies are expected to follow Pfizer’s lead on drug pricing. Trump said his administration is working with other companies to soon secure “similar agreements.” He mentioned Eli Lilly as one of the companies currently negotiating with the administration.

“We have much more to come,” said Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The company also announced a $70 billion investment on research and development and manufacturing medications in the U.S.

“It’s a win for American patients, a win for American leadership, and it’s a win for Pfizer because it provides the certainty and stability we need to continue advancing new breakthrough medicines for patients,” said Pfizer spokeswoman Amy Rose.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan David Seigerman said much of that spending may already have been planned, but it should help to ingratiate the company with the administration.

Other big drugmakers have already made similar pledges this year to spend tens of billions of dollars on U.S. projects.

“President Trump is leveraging the power of the federal government to drastically cut drug prices for everyday Americans,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai. “Democrats talked the talk for decades about drug prices, but only President Trump is actually walking the walk.”

Trump last week declared that branded drugs would face 100% tariffs if their manufacturers aren’t building facilities in the U.S. The new investments, along with others in the works that Bourla mentioned in an August earnings call, likely mean the company would be exempt from those tariffs.

“I said if we don’t make a deal, we’re going to tariff them an extra 5, 6, 7, 8 percent,” Trump said of negotiations with drug companies. “We took away the advantage by the fact that we have tariffs.”

Bourla credited the tariff threats with motivating the deal.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Trump helped spur the agreement with Pfizer, including constant phone calls to health officials urging them to negotiate. “This is something Democrats have wanted for 20 years, Republicans have wanted for 20 years,“ he said. Republicans previously accused Democrats of enacting “socialist price controls” for passing government negotiations for some Medicare drugs in President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.