Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
AstraZeneca It became the second major drugmaker on Friday to announce that it has agreed to reduce prescription drug prices. Medicaid Under an agreement with trump An administration that avoided threats of heavy tariffs.
President Donald Trump announced this Oval Office along with AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot, who said that during difficult negotiations to reach an agreement, Trump and his team of officials “literally kept me up at night.”
Under the agreement, AstraZeneca will charge Medicaid most-favored nation pricing, Trump said, while guaranteeing such pricing on newly launched drugs. This includes matching the lowest prices offered in other developed countries.
“For many years, Americans “We have the highest prices ever paid in the world for prescription drugs,” Trump said, adding that the new deal could bring prices down to “the lowest prices anywhere in the world.” That’s what we get.”
The AstraZeneca deal follows a similar agreement that Pfizer announced late last month. Advocates have generally praised the administration’s efforts to cut drug prices, although some have expressed concern that too much responsibility is being placed on manufacturers to reduce costs without implementing U.S. policy safeguards to ensure such outcomes.
However, both agreements are based on an executive order signed by Trump in May that sets a deadline for drugmakers to alternatively lower prices or face new limits on what the government will pay. Trump had suggested that a series of deals with pharmaceutical companies would come later.
“Tariffs were a big reason for him coming here,” Trump said of Soriot.
Cambridge, United Kingdom-based AstraZeneca makes a range of cancer treatments. Its products include lung cancer drug Tagrisso; Lingarza, an oral treatment for ovarian cancer, and Calquence, which treats chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
U.S. sales of those drugs totaled more than $7.5 billion last year.
AstraZeneca announced Thursday it will spend $4.5 billion on a new manufacturing plant near Charlottesville, Virginia, and its Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, spoke to drum up enthusiasm for the new facility during an Oval Office announcement on Friday.
The drugmaker said the project is the centerpiece of a $50 billion investment by the company in the US by 2030.
AstraZeneca said it plans to reach $80 billion in total revenue by then, half of which will be generated in the United States.
Trump predicted the investment could create 3,600 jobs domestically “just off the ground.”
One of the AstraZeneca drugs was already subject to price cuts due to Medicare negotiation tactics implemented under President Biden. Still, Trump insisted that Democrats “shouldn’t get the credit” and suggested that key party leaders could make efforts.
The announcements come months after AstraZeneca said it was scrapping plans to expand a vaccine manufacturing plant in its country. The company attributed this to several factors including lack of government financial support.
According to officials, the Trump administration has set up a landing page for its new website, TrumpRx.gov, where people will be able to purchase the drugs directly from manufacturers. According to the administration, both Pfizer and AstraZeneca will offer medicines through the site.
The website’s landing page features two very large photos of Trump and a promise that the site is “coming soon” in January 2026.
The bottom of the page notes that the site was “designed in DC by The National Design Studio,” the new government website design hub that Trump created by executive order in August, which is being led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia.
,
Associated Press writers Tom Murphy and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.