KFF Health News: Trump Promised Cheaper Drugs. Some Prices Dropped. Many Others Shot Up. – Image for illustrative purposes only (Image credits: Unsplash)
President Donald Trump entered his second term with a clear pledge to rein in high prescription drug costs, a burden that weighs on roughly 60 percent of American adults according to recent polling. His administration rolled out a series of announcements, negotiations, and new tools aimed at delivering relief. Yet early data from 2026 shows a mixed picture, with some targeted discounts appearing alongside broad price increases across the market. The result leaves many households still navigating steep expenses for essential medicines.
Early Moves and Their Reach
Trump sent letters to 17 drug manufacturers last July demanding voluntary price cuts. He followed up with individual meetings at the White House and later announced an agreement for most-favored-nation pricing on Medicaid purchases. In February the administration launched TrumpRx, an online portal meant to connect cash-paying patients with discounted medicines, and it promised faster regulatory pathways for lower-cost biosimilar versions of complex drugs.
These steps built on public frustration with U.S. drug prices that run roughly three times higher than in peer nations. Still, many of the details remained unclear, including exactly which medicines would receive the deepest cuts. Medicaid already secures substantial discounts through existing mechanisms, and commercial discount programs often cover a wider range of products. As a result, the new options reached only a narrow slice of patients who knew how to access them.
Price Increases Outpace the Discounts
Data compiled by 46brooklyn showed nearly 1,000 brand-name drugs raised their list prices in January 2026. The year 2025 had already set a record for the number of such increases. Pfizer alone lifted prices on 71 medicines by an average of 5 percent in the first week of the new year while cutting just one product by less than 10 percent.
Industry observers described the pattern as business as usual rather than a meaningful shift. Antonio Ciaccia of 46brooklyn noted that the changes did not alter underlying pricing structures. Patients without insurance or with high-deductible plans continued to face the full list prices on most medications.
Medicare Negotiations Provide Steady Relief
One area of clearer progress came from the continuation of Medicare drug-price negotiations that began under the prior administration. Discounts exceeding 50 percent on the first 10 selected drugs took effect January 1, generating an estimated $6 billion in annual savings. Those reductions helped cap out-of-pocket costs for Medicare Part D enrollees at $2,000 per year starting in 2025.
Fifteen additional high-cost drugs, including several weight-loss and cancer treatments, entered negotiation in 2025 with lower prices scheduled for 2027. Another 15 are slated for review this year. Together the 40 negotiated prices are projected to save Medicare more than $20 billion annually. The approach marks the first time the federal government has directly negotiated prices for select medicines, a step experts say aligns the United States with practices long used in other developed countries.
TrumpRx and Targeted Deals
The TrumpRx site features roughly 30 Pfizer medicines along with a handful of other discounted products. Notable examples include fertility drugs from EMD Serono, where one cycle of Gonal-F dropped from a $966 list price to $168 with the coupon. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy for weight loss and diabetes became available for as little as $199 a month, while the competing Zepbound from Eli Lilly lists at $299.
These reductions help certain cash-paying patients, yet many of the listed drugs already face competition from generics or biosimilars sold at far lower prices elsewhere. For instance, a branded cholesterol drug appears at $127.91 on the portal while generic alternatives cost around $17 through other channels. Older medicines such as hydrocortisone show similar gaps. The discounts apply mainly to uninsured buyers, leaving insured patients to compare their plan benefits against the new coupons.
What Matters Now
The average patient still needs to shop carefully across multiple sources to find the lowest price for any given prescription.
Industry lobbyists have already secured exemptions for certain rare-disease drugs from future negotiations. Patent protections continue to delay generic and biosimilar competition for many products, sometimes for years after regulatory approval. Patients who combine Medicare savings, TrumpRx coupons, and independent discount programs can reduce their costs, but doing so requires time and awareness that not every household possesses.
Overall, the initiatives have produced measurable savings for some groups while leaving broader price trends largely unchanged. The long-term effect will depend on whether additional negotiations expand and whether patent reforms accelerate competition in the years ahead.
