President Donald Trump issued a stark warning to major pharmaceutical companies this week.
He sent a series of identical letters to the CEOs of 17 drug manufacturers, ordering them to slash drug prices for American consumers or face consequences under new federal directives.
The letters, which Trump posted publicly on Truth Social, claimed that prices for branded medications in the U.S. are “up to three times higher on average than anywhere else for identical medicines.”
“This unacceptable burden on hardworking American families ends with my Administration,” Trump declared in the message.
Sent to executives at top pharmaceutical firms including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, and Novartis, the letters gave the industry just 60 days to comply with the administration’s pricing demands.
— Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) July 31, 2025
The initiative falls under a sweeping executive order Trump signed in May titled “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients.”
Under the policy, pharmaceutical companies must align U.S. drug prices with the lowest costs charged in other developed nations, a standard known as “most-favored-nation” (MFN) pricing.
Trump’s order contends that American consumers have long footed the bill for lower prices overseas, effectively subsidizing healthcare in Europe and other parts of the world.
The executive order claims drugmakers use deep discounts abroad to gain market access, while “enormously high prices” are imposed on American buyers to make up the difference.
Trump: This is somebody nobody else can do. I can get the drug prices down… 1000% 600% 500% 1500%. Numbers that are not even thought to be achievable. pic.twitter.com/NPMMdEZIot
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 23, 2025
According to Trump, that pricing scheme is no longer acceptable.
Each of the 17 companies receiving letters was instructed to restructure their pricing practices in accordance with the MFN model.
The directive outlines several requirements: offer Medicaid patients the entire drug portfolio at the MFN rate, guarantee MFN pricing on any newly released medications, permit direct purchase of drugs at the MFN benchmark, and open negotiations with foreign nations to recoup revenues for American consumers.
“Moving forward, the only thing I will accept from drug manufacturers is a commitment that provides American families immediate relief from the vastly inflated drug prices and an end to the free ride of American innovation by European and other developed nations,” the letter stated.
Drugmakers have until September 29 to comply with the administration’s conditions.
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Trump, who has made lowering prescription costs a top priority, previously signed another executive order in early May focused on eliminating bureaucratic hurdles that hinder domestic production of essential medications.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump gives an ULTIMATUM to big pharma companies, DEMANDING drugs prices in America match the LOWEST cost anywhere else in the world
"If you REFUSE to step up, we'll deploy every tool to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing… pic.twitter.com/pRU5fRKUpv
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 31, 2025
At a press conference unveiling the directive, he criticized the current pricing framework as an exploitative redistribution scheme.
“We are subsidizing others’ healthcare, where they paid a small fraction of what we pay,” he said.
“Even though the United States is home to only 4% of the world’s population, pharmaceutical companies make more than two-thirds of their profits in America,” Trump continued. “That’s not a good thing.”
In a Truth Social post accompanying the letter campaign, the president said the policy would reduce U.S. drug prices “almost immediately” by as much as 30% to 80%.
To illustrate the disparity, Trump highlighted the vast difference in costs for specific medications.
He noted that a breast cancer drug retails for $16,000 in the U.S., while Australian patients pay just $1,600.
Another example included the popular weight-loss medication Ozempic, which he said costs ten times more in the U.S. compared to overseas markets.
“We’re no longer paying 10 times more than another country,” he said.
The administration’s push has received backing from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spoke with Fox Business about the plan in May.
Kennedy noted that federal officials are prepared to escalate if pharmaceutical companies resist the pricing reforms.
“There are a series of escalating steps,” Kennedy explained. “But we’ve been meeting with the pharmaceutical companies. They admit that this is something that should have ended a long time ago, and I think they’re ready to figure out a way to get there.”
Kennedy pointed to provisions within the executive order that benefit drugmakers — namely the removal of Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), commonly referred to as “middlemen” who negotiate prices between manufacturers and insurance providers.
“We got rid of the PBMs. We got rid of the middlemen, and that’s something that they’ve wanted themselves,” Kennedy said.
During the interview, Kennedy again cited Ozempic as a glaring example of pricing distortion.
“In our country, the list price for Ozempic is $1,300 per dose. In London, it’s $88,” he said.
“Democratic and Republican politicians have been talking about for years: ‘We’ve got to end these discrepancies.’ Nobody has had the courage to do it because of the power of the pharmaceutical lobby on Capitol Hill,” Kennedy added.
A fact sheet released by the White House indicated that U.S. consumers account for approximately 75% of global pharmaceutical revenue, despite making up less than 5% of the planet’s population — a staggering imbalance that Trump says is long overdue for correction.
The full list of companies receiving the White House letter includes: Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and Sanofi, in addition to the previously mentioned firms.
“If you refuse to step up, we will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices,” Trump warned in his final remarks to the CEOs.
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More can be done