Trump is demanding drugmakers lower prices within 60 days. Pharma experts say it's unlikely to happen.

Earlier DU thread: Trump gives drugmakers 60 days to slash prescription drug prices

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Source: CNN

Trump is demanding drugmakers lower prices within 60 days. Pharma experts say it’s unlikely to happen.

Updated Jul 31, 2025, 6:06 PM ET
PUBLISHED Jul 31, 2025, 3:15 PM ET
By Tami Luhby

President Donald Trump is ratcheting up the pressure on major drugmakers to bring their US prices in line with the far lower ones available to patients in other countries — though industry experts don’t expect the pharmaceutical companies to acquiesce.

Trump sent letters to 17 major pharmaceutical company CEOs on Thursday with a list of demands, including that the manufacturers extend so-called “Most Favored Nation” pricing — the lowest price paid for a drug in a peer country — to all drugs provided to Medicaid enrollees. He also wants the companies to guarantee that Medicaid, Medicare and commercial-market insurers pay such prices for all new drugs. The president gave the companies 60 days to comply.

The directive stems from an executive order Trump signed in May, when he demanded drugmakers start offering US patients those lower prices or face consequences. Prices for some brand name drugs in the US are more than three times those in other developed nations, according to the administration.

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No authority

The president, however, does not have the legal authority nor the regulatory tools to require drugmakers to sell their products at “Most Favored Nation” prices in any market, said Spencer Perlman, director of health care policy research at Veda Partners, which advises institutional investors and corporations.

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Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/31/politics/trump-drug-price-lower-letter