Trump announces deal with 9 new pharmaceutical firms in move to ease drug costs

President Trump said Monday that his administration has signed agreements with nine additional pharmaceutical firms to offer discounted drugs to state Medicaid programs.

"In total, these agreements are projected to save Americans more than $600 billion over a very short period of time," Mr. Trump said during an announcement at the Oval Office.

The announcement is part of Mr. Trump's "most-favored-nation" drug pricing policy, aimed at offering drugs in the U.S. at a comparable price to that in other developed nations. The effort involves selling discounted drugs directly to consumers on TrumpRx, a website the Trump administration launched in February, where Americans can get discounts on name-brand medications.

Seventeen pharmaceutical companies have already agreed to voluntarily lower their drug prices as part of the "most favored nation" deal over the last year, according to the White House.

"With today's announcement, we now have 26 companies representing 90% of the domestic pharmaceutical market, and the other 10% are also coming in," Mr. Trump said. "They have no choice."

The nine new firms that have agreed to offer consumer discounts are midsize pharmaceutical firms, according to a White House fact sheet. They include Alcon, Astellas Pharma, BeOne Medicines, BridgeBio, CSL, Kyowa Kirin, Sun Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals and UCB. 

The White House said the companies will provide access to their drugs to every state Medicaid program in the U.S., "resulting in billions of dollars in savings for Americans." 

The companies have also committed to spending $19.6 billion on manufacturing, according to the Trump administration.