Donald Trump made a major move on Monday to slash the amount Americans pay for prescription drugs.
He signed an executive order instituting a so-called 'most favored nation's policy' under which the U.S. will pay the same as countries laying out the lowest prices for medicines.
The president said he would 'do the right thing' and not allow himself or the
Republican Party to be bought and controlled by campaign contributions made by 'Big Pharma.'
He placed the blame for price disparities on foreign countries, claiming they forced drug companies to lower costs, and said the U.S. would no longer be taken for 'suckers' by the rest of the world.
Trump also slammed
Democrats for 'protecting pharma.'
Specifically, he said during an announcement from the
White House that his order would target the highly popular GLP-1 weight loss medication,
which he called the 'fat shot drug.''The
weight loss drug Ozempic costs ten times more in the United States than the rest of the developed world. Ten times more. Why? What did we do? Suckers,' Trump lamented.
The president then told a story about a businessman friend who is 'seriously overweight' and paid just $88 for the 'damn fat drug' when he was in London, while it cost $1,300 in New York.
Alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and other top health officials, Trump signed the executive order and announced the new policy from the White House on Monday.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would dramatically reduce the price of prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals
Trump was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz for the announcement
Trump: US will no longer subsidize healthcare of foreign countries
'Starting today, the United States will no longer subsidize the health care of foreign countries, which is what we were doing – we're subsidizing others' healthcare,' Trump said. 'Countries where they paid a small fraction of what for the same drug that what we pay many, many times more for.'
Trump said that this action should reduce the price by 50 to 80 percent – with some drug prices going down by a whopping 90 percent.
But it's unclear how this will directly impact the patient and consumer. Rather, it seems that the price reduction will be for the federal government in purchasing medicines and treatments from drug companies.
'Some prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices will be reduced almost immediately by 50 to 80 to 90 percent,' Trump said on Monday.
He warned: 'Big Pharma will either abide by this principle voluntarily or will use the power of the federal government to ensure that we are paying the same price as other countries to accelerate these price restrictions and reductions.'
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) president and CEO Stephen J. Ubl told Daily Mail: 'To lower costs for Americans, we need to address the real reasons U.S. prices are higher: foreign countries not paying their fair share and middlemen driving up prices for U.S. patients.'
'The Administration is right to use trade negotiations to force foreign governments to pay their fair share for medicines,' he added.
He said that adding to the higher cost is that the U.S. is the only country that allows Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), insurers and hospitals take 50 percent of what is spent on medicines.
PBMs are third-party administrators that manage prescription drug benefits for health plans, employers, and government entities. They are the so-called 'middlemen' that Trump said Monday he wants to eliminate.
'The amount going to middlemen often exceeds the price in Europe. Giving this money directly to patients will lower their medicine costs and significantly reduce the gap with European prices,' Ubl said.
Trump previewed the historic action in a social media post on Sunday evening calling it 'one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country's history.'
The action came just moments before Trump departed Washington, D.C. for his first trip to the Middle East since coming back into office.
A White House official told reporters GLP-1 weight loss drugs could be targeted since there is a large price disparity between what Americans pay versus other countries. Trump reiterated this during his announcement from the White House on May 12, 2025
White House officials said Monday's announcement will be broader than a similar policy that Trump tried to push through during his first term.
The earlier proposal would only impact a selection of drugs covered under the federal government's health insurance plan for roughly 70 million Americans 65 years and older.
That plan only applied to Medicare Part B, which helps cover medically necessary services given during doctor's visits – like vaccines and infusions that treat cancer.
A Trump official said that drugs most under scrutiny are those that have a large price disparity between the U.S. and other countries.
This includes explosive GLP-1 weight loss medicines like Wagovy or Ozempic.
'There will be a particular focus on drugs where there is the largest disparities and the largest expenditures,' they explained. 'I would say it would be fair to expect that GLP-1s, given that they hit both of those categories, will be a focus. And there will be an expectation that those prices should come down.'
'And then if they don't, we will be looking at our various policy levers that can be used to force those prices down,' the official added.
Trump said on social media it's 'embarrassing to try and explain why the U.S. pays more than other nations for the same drug, developed in the same labs by the same country.
'[T]here was no correct or rightful (sic) answer,' the president wrote on Truth Social over the weekend.
'The Pharmaceutical/Drug Companies would say, for years, that it was Research and Development Costs, and that all of these costs were, and would be, for no reason whatsoever, borne by the 'suckers' of America, ALONE,' he added.
'Campaign Contributions can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party. We are going to do the right thing, something that the Democrats have fought for many years,' he said.
A White House official said action will be taken against drug companies if they do not come to the table to negotiate lowering prices for Americans.
The official said: 'This is an aggressive sweep of reforms. The president is dead serious about lowering drug prices.'
'The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population but accounts for three quarters of global pharmaceutical profits.'
Foreign nations are 'free-riding off American patients' who are 'forced to pay too much for prescription drugs,' an official said.
'The United States alone should not be paying for all of the innovation in the entire world in this market,' they added.
Before the White House executive order signing on Monday morning, the president said that his action would cut drug prices by nearly two-thirds.
'DRUG PRICES TO BE CUT BY 59%, PLUS!' Trump wrote on Truth Social.
A White House official detailed to reporters the actions that will be taken to ensure costs are reduced – especially if pharmaceutical and drug companies don't come to the table to negotiate prices.
Trump slams drug prices and compares costs with other countriesThe first is implementation of the 'most favored nations' policy, which would require U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer and the Department of Commerce to target practices it feels are discriminatory towards the U.S. and suppresses drug prices abroad.
Additionally, they said, Secretary Kennedy would be directed to facilitate direct-to-consumer sales at the most favored nation prices.
Within 30 days of the executive order signing on Monday, RFK Jr. will set targets for where prices can be reduced in the U.S. and would open negotiations with drug industry leaders.
HHS would also impose the lowest available price via the rule-making process if negotiations are not successful as well as expand importing drugs from other nations at a lower price.
The Department of Commerce will also consider placing restrictions on U.S. drug exports that help enable lower pricing abroad while keeping costs higher for Americans.
