US President Donald Trump has struck a new set of Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing deals with several mid-size pharma companies as his administration looks to reduce healthcare costs and bolster branded drug manufacturing on American soil.
The new deals have been forged with nine global manufacturers - Astellas Pharma, Kyowa Kirin, Sun Pharma, BeOne Medicines, Teva Pharmaceuticals, BridgeBio, CSL, Alcon and UCB. Through the agreements, Trump hopes to lower drug prices for American patients with chronic and rare diseases, with specific focus on therapies for cancer, neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease and ophthalmic indications like glaucoma and macular degeneration.
As per the newly forged deals, participating drugmakers will provide every state Medicaid programme with access to "MFN drug prices on products", which the Trump administration says will result in billions of dollars in savings for Americans. This comes as the US population grapples with sky-high costs for medicines versus other similarly developed nations.
Alongside reducing branded drug prices, some companies will also donate active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to Trump's medicines stockpiling initiative, the Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve (SAPIR), which his administration introduced to diminish America's reliance on the supply of foreign medicines. Under this scheme, UCB will provide over 160 tonnes of generic anti-seizure medication, Keppra (levetiracetam), while Sun and Teva will contribute antibiotics and Astellas will provide 25kg of immunosuppressant, tacrolimus.
While the White House itself hasn't offered any further detail on what the nine companies will get in return, Jefferies analysts believe they will likely gain exemption from branded drug import tariffs similar to the deals inked with the pharma giants like Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) – though not all companies involved have confirmed this.
MFN's impact: an analyst breakdown
Following the signing of these agreements, the White House has now forged MFN deals with 26 different pharma companies and biotechs – a result that covers 89% of the branded drug market, it claims.
While the Trump administration is touting this new swathe of MFN deals as a win for American patients, Jefferies analysts note that the scope of impact is "currently unclear".
In a previous conversation with Pharmaceutical Technology , key figureheads in the European drug market noted that smaller countries in Europe are now considering whether they should unify medicines prices to counter US pressure to spend more.
"Trump lines up MFN deals with nine mid-size pharmas on drug pricing push" was originally created and published by Pharmaceutical Technology , a GlobalData owned brand.
