An embryologist at work at the Virginia Center for Reproductive Medicine in Reston, Virginia. Photographer: Ivan Couronne/AFP/Getty Images
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump announced a deal with Germany’s Merck KGaA to cut the price of its fertility medicines in exchange for relief from threatened tariffs, a step toward fulfilling his campaign promise of making IVF less expensive and more widely available in the US.
Merck will offer its complete portfolio of IVF therapies through the president’s direct-to-consumer platform, TrumpRX, and boost manufacturing in the US. The most widely used drug, Gonal-f, is currently “700% more expensive in the United States than in the rest of the world,” Trump said during a press conference in the Oval Office on Thursday.
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Shares of Merck slipped 1% in early Frankfurt trading, bringing this year’s decline to about 21%.
In exchange, the company will get a reprieve from the tariffs hanging over the pharmaceutical industry and its EMD Serono unit will receive a priority review voucher for its Pergoveris fertility drug that’s not yet approved in the US. Pergoveris is already approved in 74 countries, the company said.
Merck’s drugs were exposed to Trump’s tariff threat because they are made outside the US, with Switzerland a key production hub.
WATCH: President Donald Trump announces a deal with Germany’s Merck KGaA to cut the price of some of its fertility medicines in exchange for relief from threatened tariffs.Source: Bloomberg
The White House previously issued an executive order directing the administration to produce by May policy recommendations aimed at lowering the cost of expensive fertility treatments. The report never came. Now, five months later, it’s addressing the procedure that costs $15,000 or more per cycle, and is typically needed more than once.
“Most couples with fertility challenges are paying these costs entirely out of their own pockets, which is not really possible to do,” Trump said. The “result will be healthier pregnancies, healthier babies and many more beautiful American children.”
The discount will slash more than $2,000 from the cost of treatment, said Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz.
Merck said patients will get an 84% discount from list prices when all three of its treatments — Gonal-f, Ovidrel and Cetrotide — are used in a typical IVF cycle.
The administration will be issuing guidance to allow employers to offer fertility perks as excepted benefits, a category that includes supplemental health coverage like dental and vision. The designation would allow employers to offer fertility support as an add-on benefit at a fixed cost and sidestep some restrictions tied to conventional insurance coverage – like spending limits.
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“This therapeutic option could mean fewer injections, fewer co-pays and lower self-pay costs, all of which make a real difference in the IVF patient experience,” Libby Horne, EMD Serono’s head of US fertility, said at the press conference.
‘Father of IVF’
Fertility was a frequent theme on the campaign trail for Trump, who once called himself the “father of IVF” at a town hall. But it’s a sticking point for some of his conservative base, particularly after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that frozen embryos could be considered children. Some fertility clinics suspended treatment until the Republican governor signed legislation protecting providers from liability.
“Endorsing IVF from the White House podium should have some positive impact on awareness and adoption for IVF, even if there are no actual financial benefits being provided to employers to adopt those benefits,” wrote Michael Cherny, an analyst at Leerink Partners, in a note to investors.
Trump has been taking steps to lower health care prices. He struck deals with Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc to delay threatened tariffs on their medicines for three years in exchange for charging the same in the US as they do abroad. The pharmaceutical companies also agreed to cut the prices they offer to the Medicaid health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans.
Merck’s tariff exemption will remain in place “as long as we commit to future fertility manufacturing in the US,” a company spokesperson said. The company was among the 17 drug companies that received a letter from Trump over the summer insisting they lower the prices of drugs in the US.
Faster Reviews
During the press conference, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said that nine drugs have been chosen for priority vouchers.
“These are products where the manufacturing is going to be in the United States, or its meeting a large unmet public health need like a diabetes drug we announced today,” Makary said.
The National Priority Voucher program offers recipients the option to accelerate the approval of medications under review. While the agency had initially planned to issue five vouchers, officials announced that it would award nine.
To qualify, the companies had to show they were on-shoring drug manufacturing, lowering drug prices for medications in their portfolios, addressing a public health crisis, developing innovative “cures” or addressing large unmet medical needs.
–With assistance from Madison Muller.
(Updates with shares in third paragraph, details from fifth.)
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