



Can Trump and Big Pharma get the world to pay more for drugs?
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Americans pay about three times what other wealthy nations do for branded prescription drugs. For years, policymakers have tried to fix this by cutting U.S.
drug prices directly. President Trump has pushed a different idea: make foreign countries pay more so Americans can pay less. For Big Pharma, there is potential upside.
But it is easier said than done. Last year, after threatening the industry with crushing tariffs, Trump secured several commitments. The most important one: Drugmakers agreed to charge the U.S.
no more than what other wealthy countries pay for newly launched medicines, as part of a policy known as “most favored nation," or MFN. On paper, it makes sense. If American prices are tethered to what the U.K.
or Switzerland pays, drugmakers would need to raise prices abroad and lower them in the U.S. to balance things out. But the reality is messier.
How do you persuade cash-strapped governments to write bigger checks to an industry they already resent? And will pharma companies actually lower U.S. prices, or simply pocket the gains from charging Europe more? What is clear is that pharmaceutical executives are eager to seize the moment. They now have leverage that was lacking in the past, including the full backing of U.S.
trade representatives and the Commerce Department. The U.K. has already agreed to increase what it pays for medicines as part of a wider trade deal with the Trump administration.
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