Agreement Reached with Drug Giant Pfizer for U.S. Discounts, but Is This a Trade Play Charade?

Faced with pharmaceutical tariffs and other governmental pressure points, drug giant Pfizer has agreed to bring its U.S. drug prices in line with those charged in other developed nations.

Pfizer’s motivation was to avoid tariffs and other pricing shocks, according to Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chief executive. As part of the deal, Pfizer will get a three-year break from pharmaceutical tariffs.

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Average price reductions are estimated to be around 50 percent.

Bourla told the gathered press: “We now have the certainty and stability we need on two critical fronts, tariffs and pricing.”

Here comes the interesting part — what I called the “trade play charade” — it appears that the newly agreed-upon price reductions will apply only to cash purchases made on a new government website called TrumpRx, which is expected to be operational in January.

In other words, the reductions won’t be available at your local pharmacy.

There is some indication that Medicaid may get price reductions as well, but the extent of those reductions was not spelled out.

According to President Trump, however, “It’s going to have a huge impact on bringing Medicaid costs down.”

The Medicaid reductions are part of a program called Most Favored Nation (MFN). Trump attempted a similar MFN drug pricing overture in his first term, which was overturned by courts for failing to follow established regulatory requirements.

Meanwhile, preceding Trump’s announcement, the pharmaceutical lobbying group PhRMA announced the creation of its own discounted drug website.

In typical fashion, Trump said Pfizer’s was only the first of a wave of Big Pharma agreements. “They’re all coming in over the next week,” Trump boasted.

We’ll see. We’ll also eventually see if these prices are any better than what can be currently obtained through discount programs such as GoodRx and SingleCare.