Most Favored Nation Commitment Deadline Today

President Trump and Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, will hold a dog and pony show at The White House this afternoon:

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/shares-pfizer-sprint-higher-trump-announce-drug-pricing-deal

Shares In Pfizer Sprint Higher As Trump To Announce Drug-Pricing Deal
By Tyler Durden - September 30, 2025

Shares of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer sprinted higher in early trade Tuesday after reports that later today, President Trump and CEO Albert Bourla, will announce that the company will sell drugs at lower prices to the US Medicaid insurance program as part of a deal to advance the Trump administration's "most favored nations" agenda.

The program is an effort to link US drug prices to the lowest cost of drugs paid by the wealthiest countries - and is linked to a May executive order that laid out the initiative, WaPo reports. Administration officials have been in negotiations with big pharma to get them to voluntarily lower their prices, which had a Monday deadline.

Bourla is also expected to announce a $70 billion investment on manufacturing medications in the USA, according to Pfizer spokeswoman Amy Rose and a White House official.

"It’s a win for American patients, a win for American leadership, and it’s a win for Pfizer because it provides the certainty and stability we need to continue advancing new breakthrough medicines for patients," Rose said in a statement.

The move coincides with a direct-to-consumer website for Americans to buy drugs, dubbed TrumpRX - which would allow people to pay cash for certain drugs directly from a government website at a discounted price negotiated by the government.

"We pay much higher for drugs than the rest of the world. We subsidize the rest of the world," Trump said last week. "We’re not doing that anymore and that’s a big thing."

Trump has long argued that the United States government spends too much on medications and pursued a similar drug-pricing plan during his first term. His administration has sought to pressure the pharmaceutical industry through a mix of tariffs and new initiatives, such as several pilot programs being developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that could impose new drug-pricing controls in the Medicare program, according to four people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail those pilot programs. -WaPo

And according to the Wall Street Journal, other companies are expected to follow suit.

"President Trump is leveraging the power of the federal government to drastically cut drug prices for everyday Americans," said White House spokesman Kush Desai. "Democrats talked the talk for decades about drug prices, but only President Trump is actually walking the walk."

The pharmaceutical industry has sought to make concessions - with their main lobbying group - the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America on Monday announcing a series of voluntary steps to support Trump's goals.

More details on the Pfizer MFN deal:

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/trump-announce-pfizer-drug-price-cuts-2025-09-30/

Pfizer does deal with Trump on prescription drug prices
By Nandita Bose and Patrick Wingrove - September 30, 2025

Summary

*    U.S. patients often pay nearly three times more than in other developed nations for prescription drugs
*    Pfizer first drug company to announce a deal with the Trump administration
*    Pfizer shares rise more than 6%, other drugmakers also up
*    White House plans a direct-to-consumer website for Americans to buy drugs [ Not Accurate, 10x25mm ]

WASHINGTON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Pfizer (PFE.N) and President Donald Trump 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 relief.

Trump also said Pfizer would offer that most-favored-nation pricing on all new drugs launched in the U.S. and flagged that other drugmakers will follow suit.

Shares of Pfizer rose more than 6%, and the news lifted Eli Lilly (LLY.N), Merck (MRK.N), Amgen (AMGN.O), AbbVie (ABBV.N), and GSK (GSK.L) shares as well on investor relief that they would escape the worst of tariffs.

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.

TRUMPRX TO LAUNCH IN 2026

Pfizer will be part of the White House's new direct-to-consumer website for Americans to buy drugs, called TrumpRx, that will launch in 2026.

"The United States is done subsidizing the healthcare of the rest of the world," Trump said, speaking at an event in the Oval Office accompanied by Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and others.

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's desire to offset price decreases in the U.S.
On September 25, Trump announced he would impose a 100% tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products from October 1, unless a drugmaker is building a manufacturing plant in the U.S.

PFIZER DEAL INCLUDES 3-YEAR GRACE PERIOD

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 September 29.
Pfizer research facility in California

Sources at five large drugmakers told Reuters the Trump-Pfizer announcement caught their companies by surprise and that they watched the White House press conference to gauge its implications.

Pfizer will invest $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, "as long as, of course, we move the products here," Bourla said.

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% and on average 50%. According to a poster on display at the event, those will include rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz, which carries a list price of over $6,000 a month, migraine treatment Zavzpret, dermatitis drug Eucrisa and post-menopausal osteoporosis medication Duavee.

Drugmakers' shares rose because the price concessions are limited to Medicaid, said Daniel Barasa, portfolio manager at investment firm Gabelli Funds.

Barasa said the deal was "a highly favorable outcome for the industry. Given that Medicaid already benefits from substantial discounts and rebates - exceeding 80% in certain cases - the incremental impact on manufacturers is relatively minimal."

LAUNCHING NEXT YEAR

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

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's announcement.

Medicare's drug spending reached $216 billion in 2021, while Medicaid's gross spending was around $80 billion.

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.

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.

More complete and accurate information on the TrumpRx.com web site was supplied by The Hill.