{"id":182480,"date":"2025-10-01T12:13:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T12:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/182480\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T12:13:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T12:13:16","slug":"pfizer-to-cut-drug-prices-in-exchange-for-tariff-relief-trump-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/182480\/","title":{"rendered":"Pfizer to cut drug prices in exchange for tariff relief, Trump says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump announces a deal with Pfizer to sell drugs at lower prices, in the Oval office of the White House on Tuesday.Ken Cedeno\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Pfizer PFE-N<\/a> and U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> on Tuesday said they had cut a deal in which the U.S.-based drugmaker agreed to lower prescription drug prices in the Medicaid program to what it charges in other developed countries in exchange for tariff<\/a> relief.<\/p>\n

Trump also said Pfizer would offer that most-favoured-nation pricing on all new drugs launched in the U.S. and flagged that other drugmakers will follow suit.<\/p>\n

Shares of Pfizer rose more than 6 per cent, and the news lifted Eli Lilly, Merck, Amgen, AbbVie and GSK shares as well on investor relief that they would escape the worst of tariffs.<\/p>\n

U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Pfizer will be part of the White House\u2019s new direct-to-consumer website for Americans to buy drugs, called TrumpRx, that will launch in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States is done subsidizing the health care of the rest of the world,\u201d Trump said, speaking at an event in the Oval Office accompanied by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others.<\/p>\n

Medical experts fear pregnant patients will heed Trump\u2019s unproven claims about Tylenol<\/a><\/p>\n

Several drugmakers have already set up direct-to-consumer pricing for some of their drugs, to be listed on a new website from the U.S. lobby group PhRMA, and raised the prices of their therapies in Britain in line with Trump\u2019s desire to offset price decreases in the U.S.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 25, Trump announced he would impose a 100 per cent tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products from Oct. 1, unless a drugmaker is building a manufacturing plant in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Pfizer is the first drugmaker to announce a deal. Trump sent letters to 17 leading drug companies in July telling them to slash prices to match those paid overseas. He asked them to respond with binding commitments by Sept. 29.<\/p>\n

Sources at five large drugmakers told Reuters the Trump-Pfizer announcement caught their companies by surprise and that they watched the White House news conference to gauge its implications.<\/p>\n

Pfizer will invest US$70-billion in research and development and domestic manufacturing and received a three-year grace period during which its products will not be subject to the pharmaceutical-targeted tariffs, \u201cas long as, of course, we move the products here,\u201d Bourla said.<\/p>\n

Pfizer said a large majority of its primary care treatments and some select specialty brands will be offered at savings that will range as high as 85 per cent and on average 50 per cent. According to a poster on display at the event, those will include rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz, which carries a list price of over US$6,000 a month, migraine treatment Zavzpret, dermatitis drug Eucrisa and post-menopausal osteoporosis medication Duavee.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s latest tariffs hit new group of Canadian industries, but details are hazy<\/a><\/p>\n

Drugmakers\u2019 shares rose because the price concessions are limited to Medicaid, said Daniel Barasa, portfolio manager at investment firm Gabelli Funds.<\/p>\n

Barasa said the deal was \u201ca highly favourable outcome for the industry. Given that Medicaid already benefits from substantial discounts and rebates \u2013 exceeding 80 per cent in certain cases \u2013 the incremental impact on manufacturers is relatively minimal.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Medicaid prices are also set to launch in 2026, a senior administration official said on a media call. The most-favoured-nation pricing is based on the lowest price paid in eight other wealthy countries after fees and rebates.<\/p>\n

More than 70 million people are covered by Medicaid, the state and federal government program for low-income people. But drug spending in the program is dwarfed by that of its sister program Medicare, which covers people aged 65 and older or who have disabilities and is not included in Tuesday\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n

Medicare\u2019s drug spending reached US$216-billion in 2021, while Medicaid\u2019s gross spending was around US$80-billion.<\/p>\n

Anna Kaltenboeck, a health economist at Verdant Research, said that if Pfizer and other companies provide supplemental rebates to Medicaid, that could be significant, as it would support states struggling with the cost of specialty drugs.<\/p>\n

Medicaid spends less on drugs than other payers, however, so the impact would be less dramatic than if the reductions applied to Medicare, she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: U.S. President Donald Trump announces a deal with Pfizer to sell drugs at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-182480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}