WASHINGTON (TNND) — President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a drug pricing agreement with pharmaceutical company Regeneron, marking the final deal in a yearlong effort by the Trump administration to push major drugmakers to lower costs.
“With this announcement, 17 of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, representing 80% of the branded drug market have now agreed to sell their drugs to American patients at the lowest prices anywhere in the world,” Trump said during a news conference at the White House.
The president added that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved a new drug from Regeneron called Otarmeni, a gene therapy that cures a rare disease that causes deafness.
As Trump spoke, he was joined by 2-year-old Travis Smith, as well as the boy’s mother, Sierra. He said the child was born deaf, but added that the boy’s life changed after he started the treatment.
“He was 100% deaf, but he took this miracle cure and now he can hear his mom, Sierra, say, ‘I love you,'” Trump said of the boy.
Sierra told Trump the treatment has transformed her son from a serious baby to a happy toddler.
“Regeneron works miracles,” she said. “He didn’t know his name. He couldn’t hear me tell him how much I love him — and now, with Regeneron, and this amazing surgery, he can listen to music. And he loves it. He loves to dance. He loves instruments and I’m so proud of him. And he’s been so brave through all of this. And, yeah, now he can hear. He has a bright future ahead of him and I’m so thankful to everybody on the Regeneron team.”
Under the agreement, Regeneron will reduce prices for its current and future medications in Medicaid and offer its cholesterol drug Praluent for a set discounted price through a new federal platform aimed at connecting Americans with lower-cost prescriptions.
It also involves selling a cholesterol drug called Praluent for $225 on the White House’s discounted drug website TrumpRx, according to the agreement first outlined by NOTUS and confirmed by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The deal is part of Trump’s “Most Favored Nation” initiative, which seeks to align U.S. drug prices with those paid in other developed countries. Regeneron had been the last of 17 pharmaceutical companies targeted by the administration to reach such an agreement.
Trump also said the company has committed to investing billions of dollars in domestic manufacturing and will provide a newly approved gene therapy for a rare form of hearing loss free to eligible patients in the U.S.
According to a news release, Regeneron described Otarmeni as “an adeno-associated virus vector-based gene therapy indicated for the treatment of pediatric and adult patients with severe-to-profound and profound sensorineural hearing loss associated with molecularly confirmed biallelic variants in the OTOF gene, preserved outer hair cell function, and no prior cochlear implant in the same ear.”
Otarmeni, formerly known as DB-OTO, is the first and only in vivo gene therapy for OTOF-related hearing loss and will be made available by Regeneron for free in the U.S.
“The FDA approval of Otarmeni signals a new era in the treatment of genetic forms of hearing loss, where reinstating 24/7 natural hearing is now possible,” A. Eliot Shearer, M.D., Ph.D., an otolaryngologist, said in the release. “In the pivotal trial, the one-time gene therapy demonstrated rapid, meaningful and consistent hearing responses, with most children achieving remarkable hearing improvements. I’ve witnessed firsthand my trial participant responding to their mother’s voice, dancing to music and interacting with the world, and these moments are now possible for more children born with this specific form of hearing loss.”
The White House has made lowering prescription drug costs a central part of its domestic policy agenda, particularly as affordability remains a top concern for voters. However, critics have questioned the impact of the agreements, noting that some of the discounts apply primarily to government programs like Medicaid and may not significantly reduce out-of-pocket costs for all consumers.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.