Trump unveils Regeneron deal to lower drug prices

President Trump unveiled a deal with drugmaker Regeneron on Thursday for the company to voluntarily cut prices, the final manufacturer to commit to the White House’s “most favored nation” plan to lower U.S. costs in line with other developed nations. 

Under the agreement, Regeneron said it will reduce prices for its current and future medications sold to Medicaid.  

It will also offer its cholesterol drug Praluent for a discounted price of $225 through the TrumpRx.gov website in exchange for tariff relief and other incentives. 

Trump has long used tariff threats as leverage to force companies to lower prices and move manufacturing to the U.S.  

Regeneron is the last of the 17 companies the White House targeted last year to commit to cutting prices under his most favored nation policy. 

The discounts apply to Medicaid patients, not to people on private insurance or Medicare. Experts have noted the discounts aren’t likely to significantly impact companies’ bottom lines, as Medicaid drugs are already highly discounted. 

At a White House event touting the deal, HHS chief counselor Chris Klomp said the combined deals represent 86 percent of the branded drug market. He said the administration now plans to work out agreements with the “many hundreds” of smaller pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the U.S.

The Trump administration has made lowering prescription drug costs a central part of its domestic policy agenda, as the administration is working to convince voters that Republicans care about affordability ahead of the November midterm elections. 

However, the details of the agreements remain private, making it difficult to assess their true impact. Democrats this week pressed Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to release details of the agreements, arguing they fall well short of the administration’s grand promises.

The pricing agreement came just hours after Regeneron announced the Food and Drug Administration had approved the company’s gene therapy for children with profound genetic hearing loss. 

The therapy treats an extremely rare genetic variant found in only about 50 children a year. It is the first treatment to restore normal hearing in children who were born deaf. The only other way to treat the condition, called otoferlin deafness, has been with a cochlear implant.

Gene therapies are some of the most expensive drugs on the market, but Regeneron said it would provide the treatment for free.