U.S. President Donald Trump makes an announcement about lowering the cost of drug prices, at the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Dec. 19, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Nearly a dozen drugmakers are slated to ink deals with President Donald Trump on Monday to voluntarily sell their medications for less, MS NOW reported, building on his push to link the nation’s drug prices to cheaper ones abroad.
It is unclear which companies will be included, according to the MS NOW report. Trump is scheduled to make an announcement on healthcare affordability at 3:00 p.m. ET on Monday.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has reached drug pricing deals with 17 pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, as part of its “most favored nation” policy. Trump signed an executive order in May 2025 to revive that policy, calling for prices to be increased outside of the U.S. and to “end global freeloading.”
The reported deals would add to the White House’s efforts to spotlight healthcare affordability ahead of the midterm elections.
Bloomberg reported last week that the drugmakers on Monday are expected to agree to provide discounts on outpatient drugs to state Medicaid programs so that prices states pay align with what companies charge in foreign countries. Participation by state Medicaid programs is optional.
In exchange, those companies will be exempt from pilot programs mandating similar discounts in Medicare, Bloomberg reported.
Medicaid already receives steep discounts from companies under federal law, so it’s unclear how the new deals will impact what patients pay out of pocket.
The “most favored nation” deals that have been signed with the Trump administration have already impacted the commercial strategies, bottom lines and manufacturing pipelines of major pharmaceutical companies.
To insulate themselves from future tariff threats, drugmakers are spending billions of dollars to bring manufacturing capabilities back to the U.S. Companies are also drastically expanding direct-to-consumer channels for their products, including by offering their medicines on the president’s TrumpRx portal. Lower prices in the U.S. are weighing on bottom lines, with manufacturers like Novo Nordisk saying that it will take time for prescription volumes to offset the revenue dip.
U.S. prescription drug prices on average are nearly three times higher than they are overseas, according to a 2024 study by Rand Corp. Prices for branded drugs were more than four times higher, the report found.
The trade association PhRMA, which represents many major pharma companies, has previously said that most-favored nation pricing isn’t the best way to lower drug costs for Americans and instead blamed pharmacy benefit managers for the price disparity.
The U.S. is the single most important market for many drugmakers, regardless of their home country. Despite being based across the Atlantic, European pharma companies are heavily exposed to the U.S. market, with half of the 10 largest companies on the continent generating a majority of their sales in the U.S.
