Top Drugmakers to Lower US Prices for Some Drugs

AbbVie, Bristol Myers Squibb, ⁠Gilead, Merck and other drugmakers are expected on Friday afternoon to announce agreements with the U.S. government to lower certain prescription drug prices, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Switzerland-based Novartis and Roche are also expected to announce deals, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday. Reuters ‍previously reported that AbbVie was among the companies.

In July, Trump ‍sent letters to leaders of 17 major pharmaceutical companies, outlining how they should provide so-called most-favored-nation prices to the U.S. government's Medicaid ⁠health program for low-income people, and guarantee that new drugs will not be launched at prices above those in other high-income countries.

So far, five companies ​have struck deals with the administration to rein in prices. They are Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk and EMD Serono, the U.S. division of Germany's Merck KGaA.

The remaining 12 are ‍Sanofi, Regeneron, Merck , Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, Amgen , Gilead, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers , GSK, ⁠Novartis, and Genentech, Roche's U.S. unit.

AbbVie, Bristol Myers, Gilead and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Merck declined to comment.

Special: Why 2026 Is Expected to Be America's Best Year, Thanks to Trump... Read More Here

Novartis has said it is in discussions with the Trump administration and is committed to finding solutions that lower costs ⁠for Americans.

\Roche said it ​supported Trump's goal of reducing ⁠the cost of drugs and encouraged other countries to reward biopharmaceutical innovation.

Trump has long focused on the ‍disparity between drug prices in the U.S. and other wealthy countries, which have government-run health systems that negotiate ‌price discounts.

The specter of tighter price controls by the U.S. government initially spooked investors, but terms of the deals announced so far calmed many of those fears.

Analysts ⁠have noted ​that Medicaid, which accounts ‍for only around 10% of U.S. drug spending, already benefits from substantial price discounts, exceeding 80% in some cases. Pfizer, which announced its 2026 ‍financial outlook on Tuesday, said the Medicaid discounts would result in price and margin compression next year.