President Trump says his administration has pulled off something unprecedented: taking the United States from the highest prescription drug prices in the world to the lowest. But a fresh independent analysis of the government's TrumpRx.gov platform tells a messier story, finding that discounts for brand-name medications are, in the words of one health policy researcher, a mixed bag.
Trump made the claim while touting agreements his administration says it has struck with 26 of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, claiming discounts as steep as 60%, 70%, 80% and even 90% on certain drugs, according to NBC News. “This one thing alone should win us the midterms,” Trump said, according to the outlet. TrumpRx.gov launched in February 2026 and now lists more than 800 brand-name and generic medications, blending pre-existing drugmaker discounts with newly negotiated prices.
A KFF analysis examined 32 brand-name drugs sold through TrumpRx that have no generic or biosimilar equivalents, comparing their prices against 11 other wealthy countries using publicly available international pricing data. The results split roughly down the middle: TrumpRx prices came in lower than average prices abroad for 17 of the 32 drugs, but higher for 15 of them. Only five drugs were priced lowest in the world on TrumpRx, while 13 were priced highest worldwide. Comparison countries in a related KFF review included Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Wildly Different Results, Drug by Drug
The gap between individual drugs is stark. TrumpRx prices Ozempic at $349 per month, more than $150 above the $190 monthly price in the next-highest-priced wealthy country analyzed. Enbrel runs $3,354 per month on TrumpRx compared with an average of $641 per month in other countries examined.
Other drugs tell the opposite story. TrumpRx prices Rydapt at $2,909 for 56 capsules, while the same supply costs $5,901 in France. Juliette Cubanski, who worked on the KFF analysis, described the overall picture as a mixed bag rather than a clean win, per the NBC News report.
How the Discounts Actually Work
TrumpRx does not sell drugs directly. Instead, it directs consumers to manufacturer programs offering coupons or discounted cash prices for people paying without insurance, relying on voluntary agreements between the White House and individual drugmakers. The platform's underlying technology draws on GoodRx pricing data, and GoodRx itself has confirmed it serves as the pricing engine behind more than 30 of Pfizer's brand-name medications offered through the site, per GoodRx.
The discounts stem from Most-Favored-Nation pricing deals that offer drugmakers lower U.S. pricing requirements in exchange for tariff relief, a mechanism detailed by Sidley Austin LLP, which noted that drugmakers agreed to MFN terms partly to avoid proposed pharmaceutical import tariffs. That tariff-linked executive order followed President Trump's earlier Executive Order 14297, signed in May 2025, which directed the Department of Health and Human Services to establish Most-Favored-Nation pricing targets benchmarked against the lowest prices paid by comparably developed nations, according to the Federal Register.
The White House has declined to disclose the exact details of its agreements with individual drugmakers, leaving the terms of those bilateral deals largely confidential. Antonio Ciaccia counts roughly 80 brand-name drugs currently listed on TrumpRx, a figure that sits alongside the site's broader catalog of several cheaper generic medications as well.
Why Insured Patients May Not Benefit
Why Insured Patients May Not Benefit About 9 in 10 Americans carry some form of health insurance, but spending through TrumpRx does not count toward patient copays or deductibles, since purchases happen outside the insurance system entirely. A February 2026 KFF policy brief flagged this as a critical trade-off: insured consumers who use TrumpRx's cash discounts forgo any credit toward their plan's deductible or annual out-of-pocket maximum.
Health policy experts told NBC News it is simply too soon to know whether TrumpRx will meaningfully lower U.S. prices over time. Cubanski said it's possible TrumpRx prices could end up lower than international prices within a year, but that outcome remains unproven. A separate Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker review compared TrumpRx brand-name prices against listed public prices across 11 peer nations, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, and cautioned that listed prices may not reflect patients' out-of-pocket costs.
The Bigger Push Behind the Numbers
The administration has also been promoting broader financial projections tied to its MFN strategy. A May 2026 report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers projected that voluntary Most-Favored-Nation deals on new drug launches could generate $529 billion in domestic savings over 10 years, though that estimate assumes drugmakers will voluntarily match foreign benchmarks across private commercial markets. Separately, all 50 states would join the so-called GENEROUS Medicaid model, which extends MFN benchmark pricing to state programs.
Federal inflation data cited by NBC News shows prescription drug prices fell 3.1% over the year ending in July. That broader trend has featured in local healthcare discussions too; Hoodline's prior coverage of Dr. Oz pitching CHOICE health plans to Austin employers touched on the administration's drug-pricing push. For now, independent reviewers say the real test of TrumpRx's Most-Favored-Nation claims will come as more pricing data accumulates and bilateral manufacturer agreements, still shielded from public view, become easier to evaluate over time.
