 "US President Donald Trump made the announcement on Tuesday from the Oval Office. He was accompanied by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. Reuters")
Soon, US citizens will be able to get medicine at a discount.
How? Via a website bearing the president’s name. The name of the website? TrumpRx, of course.
The US president has announced that the federal government is tying up with the drug maker Pfizer to allow the firm to sell its drugs straight to consumers. He said deals with other big pharma firms are in the works.
This comes in the backdrop of Trump imposing 100 per cent tariff on branded pharma products imported into the United States.
But what do we know about the website? How will it work?
Let’s take a closer look.
What we know
Trump made the announcement on Tuesday from the Oval Office. He was accompanied by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
“The United States is done subsidising the health care of the rest of the world,” Trump said. “By taking this bold step, we’re ending the era of global price gouging at the expense of American families.”
“I think today we are turning the tide, and we are reversing an unfair situation,” Bourla added.
Trump said the website is likely to launch sometime in early 2026. He said that citizens will be able to buy medicine from the website at discounted rates. He said the company will sell certain drugs at the same price point as they do in other developed countries – what is known as the “Most Favoured Nation” levels.
This is known as the ‘net price’ – which comprises discounts and subsidies. This price point will then be compared to what the medication is sold for in other countries such as Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Denmark – and be sold for a similar amount in America.
Trump had attempted to implement this ‘Most Favoured Nation’ pricing in his first term. In May, the president signed an executive order instructing drugmakers like Pfizer to do so. He also ordered Health and Human Services to set price targets within a month. Trump had then written to the CEOs of over a dozen pharma firms. He had given the drugmakers until Monday to agree to his demands or face consequences.
“If you refuse to step up, we will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices,” the letter stated.
According to a 2024 Health and Human Services Department report , US citizens pay as much as three times for drugs than their peers in other developed countries do. Much of this is because of the way the US health industry is set up, with insurers and pharma managers acting as middlemen.
How will it work?
The website itself will not directly sell or distribute the medicine. Consumers will be able to search for the drugs they want on the website and will then be forwarded to Pfizer’s direct-to-consumer sales.
The company said it will offer many of its main drugs and some brand-name drugs at a discount of as much as 50 per cent. It will also increase its manufacturing in America – for which it will receive a three-year exemption of tariffs on some pharma products.
Trump has claimed he will be having similar discussions with other drugmakers over the next week. However, it remains to be seen if any other firms join Trump’s initiative. Meanwhile, the details surrounding the initiative remain murky.
There are also existing complications. Unlike America, many of the other countries have nationalised healthcare systems – which allows their governments to set the price. In America, meanwhile, things are usually left to market forces. Experts say that drugmakers, rather than reduce their prices in America, would instead increase their prices abroad.
One White House official told reporters anonymously that only those not using their health insurance would be able to purchase medication from the website. He said consumers with health insurance could find it cheaper to purchase drugs at the pharmacy.
What do experts say?
Experts are not enthusiastic about Trump’s plans.
They noted that most of these drugs on the list unveiled – Duavee, which treats menopause symptoms, Eucrisa for atopic dermatitis, Toviaz for an overactive bladder and autoimmune drugs Abrilada and Xeljanz – are expensive and not often prescribed in America.
Xeljanz, which treats rheumatoid arthritis, for example, costs $6,000 (Rs 5.32 lakh) per month. Worse, it is set to see competition from generic medication – meaning far cheaper competitors – starting next year.
Ameet Sarpatwari, an assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School, told NPR, “I think it’s more underwhelming than what the president is touting.”
“I think it’s more window dressing than the transformational sort of reforms that are needed to really provide relief to Americans struggling with high prices.”
“New Trump drug website is likely irrelevant as few will pay out of pocket” unless there are changes in insurance policies, Chris Meekins, managing director of health policy research at Raymond James, told his clients in a policy note.
“If this is all that President Trump does on drug pricing, it is likely a win for the pharmaceutical industry,” he said.
But that hasn’t stopped Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr from praising Trump to the heavens. “Never has a president stood up so bravely for the American people with respect to health care,” Kennedy said.
“The president is absolutely right, tariffs is the most powerful tool to motivate behaviours,” Bourla added.
With inputs from agencies