President Trump Announces 30% To 80% Drop In Prescription Drug Prices
on May 11, 2025
Announcement On Drug Price Reduction Follows April 15 Executive Order
Describing it as “one of the most important and impactful” announcements he has ever made on Truth Social, President Donald Trump shared in the evening of Sunday, May 11, that he will be tackling prescription drug costs directly.
At 9 a.m. on Monday, May 12, Trump signed what he described as “one of the most consequential Executive Orders in our Country’s history,” adding, “Prescription Drug and Pharmaceutical prices will be REDUCED, almost immediately, by 30% to 80%.”
To accomplish this drop in costs, he said the cost of prescription drugs “will rise throughout the World in order to equalize” the cost. This, he said, will be happening “for the first time in many years” as an effort to “bring FAIRNESS TO AMERICA!”
He added, “I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’S POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World.”
The May 12 Press Conference
“Our country has the highest drug prices anywhere in the world,” Trump said at a press conference on May 12. “Even though the United States is home to only 4% of the world’s population, pharmaceutical companies make more than two-thirds of their profits in America.”
To counter this, Trump detailed the Most-Favored Nation policy, stating it will “equalize” the cost of prescription drugs.
“Whoever is paying the lowest price, we will look at that price and we will say, ‘That’s the price that we’re going to get.’ Most-Favored Nations, that’s what it is.”
Describing it as “a redistribution of wealth,” Trump said, “It could be the same top line, but it’s going to be distributed differently. Europe’s gonna have to pay a little bit more, the rest of the world’s gonna have to pay a little bit more, and America’s gonna pay a lot less.”
He went on to share a few examples of prescription drug cost disparities in the world, stating, “One breast cancer drug costs Americans over $16,000 per bottle, but the same drug from the same factory, manufactured by the same company, is one-sixth that price in Australia and one-tenth that price in Sweden.”
Another example Trump gave was an asthma drug that costs nearly $500 in America, but is about $40 in the United Kingdom.
Within 30 days of this May 12 order, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other department heads are to identify the price points pharmaceutical manufacturers should sell their drugs at in America “to bring prices for American patients in line with comparably developed nations.”
Read the full May 12 executive order here: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/delivering-most-favored-nation-prescription-drug-pricing-to-american-patients/.
Trump was joined in making this announcement by RFK Jr., CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, and NHS Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
Asked by Trump to speak on the announcement, RFK Jr., who has been leading the “Make America Healthy Again” movement with the president, said, “I grew up in the Democratic party, and every major Democratic leader for 20 years has been making this promise to the American people … As it turns out, none of them were doing it. It’s one of these promise that politicians make to their constituents knowing that they’ll never have to do it.”
Stating that “Congress is controlled … by the pharmaceutical industry,” RFK Jr. said, “This was an issue that people talked about but nobody wanted to do anything.”
RFK Jr. then declared, “We now have a president who is a man of his word, who has the courage.”
Continuing, RFK Jr. took a shot at Trump’s critics, saying, “[They] are saying that President Trump is on the side of the oligarchs. There has never been a president more willing to stand up to the oligarchs than President Donald Trump.”
As he concluded his remarks, he noted that some of his children, who are Democrats in the Kennedy tradition, “had tears in their eyes” when RFK Jr. shared with them that the Trump administration would be taking this action to lower drug costs.
“I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime,” RFK Jr. said.
Administrator Dr. Oz then chimed in, “This is the most powerful executive order on pharmacy pricing and healthcare, ever, in our nation.”
Watch the full press conference here:
“We Are Going To Do The Right Thing”
Giving some background on why he is taking this action to lower the costs of prescription drugs, Trump shared in his Truth Social post:
“For many years the World has wondered why Prescription Drugs and Pharmaceuticals in the United States States of America were SO MUCH HIGHER IN PRICE THAN THEY WERE IN ANY OTHER NATION, SOMETIMES BEING FIVE TO TEN TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE THAN THE SAME DRUG, MANUFACTURED IN THE EXACT SAME LABORATORY OR PLANT, BY THE SAME COMPANY???”
Noting there has been “no correct or rightful answer” regarding the cause for the cost of these drugs, Trump stated, “The Pharmaceutical/Drug Companies would say, for years, that it was Research and Development Costs, and that all of these costs were, and would be, for no reason whatsoever, borne by the ‘suckers’ of America, ALONE.”
Taking a moment to allude to the influence of lobbyists in the pharmaceutical policy realm, he said, “Campaign Contributions can do wonders, but not with me, and not with the Republican Party.”
Of the Republicans and his administration, Trump declared, “We are going to do the right thing, something that the Democrats have fought for many years.
Forthcoming Directives On Prescription Drug Costs
This executive comes nearly a month after Trump signed an executive order on April 15 which sought to lay the foundation for concrete action.
The April 15 executive order took the Biden administration to task for the “misnamed Inflation Reduction Act” and the “undoing” of the first Trump administration’s cost-cutting initiatives for American patients.
Seeking to restore these measures, “while making America healthy again,” Trump made a few related directives to his cabinet members:
- Within 60 days of of the April 15 order, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “shall propose and seek comment on guidance for the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program for initial price applicability year 2028 and manufacturer effectuation of maximum fair price under such program in 2026, 2027, and 2028.”
- Within 90 days from April 15, RFK Jr. “shall take action to ensure future grants available … are conditioned upon health centers establishing practices to make insulin and injectable epinephrine available at or below the discounted price paid by the health center grantee or sub-grantee … to individuals with low incomes who have a high cost-sharing requirement for either insulin or injectable epinephrine, have a high unmet deductible, or have no healthcare insurance.”
- Within 180 days from April 15, Vince Haley, assistant to the president for Domestic Policy; Kevin Hassett, assistant to the president for Economic Policy, “shall provide recommendations to the President on how best to stabilize and reduce Medicare Part D premiums.”
- Within one year from April 15, RFK Jr. “shall take appropriate steps to develop and implement a rulemaking plan and select for testing … a payment model to improve the ability of the Medicare program to obtain better value for high-cost prescription drugs and biological products covered by Medicare.”
Read the full April 15 executive order here: www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/lowering-drug-prices-by-once-again-putting-americans-first/.
Concluding his May 11 Truth Social post, he said, “Our Country will finally be treated fairly, and our citizens Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before. Additionally, on top of everything else, the United States will save TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS.”
This approach to the pharmaceutical industry calls to mind the Right To Try Act, signed into law by Trump in 2018 during his first presidential term, which allowed “certain unapproved, experimental drugs to be administered to terminally ill patients who have exhausted all approved treatment options and are unable to participate in clinical drug trials.”
