AstraZeneca agrees to lower drug prices for Medicaid under Trump administration deal
WASHINGTON AP AstraZeneca on Friday became the second major pharmaceutical manufacturer to announce it had agreed to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Medicaid under a deal struck with the Trump administration that avoided its threats of steep tariffs President Donald Trump made the announcement in the Oval Office with AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot who stated that during tough negotiations to reach a deal Trump and his squad of representatives had really kept me up at night Under the agreement AstraZeneca will charge most-favored-nation pricing to Medicaid while guaranteeing such pricing on newly launched drugs Trump stated That involves matching the lowest price offered in other developed nations For multiple years Americans have paid the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs by far Trump mentioned adding that the new deal may cut prices to the lowest price anywhere in the world That s what we get AstraZeneca s deal follows a similar agreement Pfizer communicated late last month Advocates have generally praised the administration s efforts to cut drug prices though selected have expressed concerns that too much onus is being placed on the manufacturers to lower costs without implementing U S initiative safeguards to ensure such outcomes Both agreements however build on an executive order Trump signed in May that set a deadline for drugmakers to electively lower prices or face new limits on what the establishment will pay Trump had suggested that a series of deals with drug companies would subsequently be coming The tariffs were a big reason he came here Trump disclosed of Soriot Cambridge United Kingdom-based AstraZeneca makes a range of cancer treatments Its products include the lung cancer drug Tagrisso Lynparza an oral healing for ovarian cancer and Calquence which treats chronic lymphocytic leukemia Those drugs brought in a total of more than billion in U S sales last year AstraZeneca reported Thursday that it would spend billion on a new manufacturing plant near Charlottesville Virginia and its Republican governor Glenn Youngkin spoke during Friday s Oval Office announcement to cheer groundbreaking on the new facility The drugmaker commented that project was the centerpiece of billion in investments the company plans to make in the U S by AstraZeneca explained it plans to reach billion in total revenue by then half of which will be generated in the United States Trump predicted the capital s could lead to jobs domestically just to begin with One of the AstraZeneca drugs was already subject to price reductions due to a Medicare negotiating strategy implemented under President Biden Still Trump insisted that Democrats shouldn t get credit and suggested the party s key leaders may try The announcements came months after AstraZeneca declared it was scrapping plans to expand a vaccine manufacturing plant in its home country The company blamed several factors including reduced regime financial sponsorship The Trump administration has put up a landing page for its new website TrumpRX gov where people will be able to buy drugs directly from manufacturers according to administrators Both Pfizer and AstraZeneca will offer medications through the site according to the administration The website s landing page features two very large pictures of Trump and a promise that the site is Coming Soon in January It says at the bottom of the page that the site was Designed in DC by The National Design Studio the new regime website design hub that Trump created by executive order in August which is being led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia Associated Press writers Tom Murphy and Michelle L Price contributed to this document Source
