WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald J. Trump on Friday announced a new agreement with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca aimed at lowering prescription drug costs and strengthening U.S. manufacturing, part of a broader effort to align American drug prices with those paid in other developed nations.
The agreement, the second of its kind under the administration’s “most-favored-nation” initiative, will give every state Medicaid program access to AstraZeneca products at the lowest prices available in comparable foreign markets. Federal officials said the move could save hundreds of millions of dollars while improving affordability for millions of Americans who rely on the company’s medications.
AstraZeneca will also be required to repatriate increased foreign revenue gained under U.S. trade policies and offer deep discounts on several of its prescription medicines when sold directly to American patients. The White House said the company’s inhalers — including Bevespi Aerosphere, Breztri Aerosphere, and Airsupra — will be available at sharply reduced prices.
The deal follows the administration’s earlier announcement of a similar agreement with Pfizer as part of Trump’s May 12 executive order, “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients.” The order directs federal agencies to pursue pricing reforms ensuring Americans pay no more than the lowest price offered in other developed countries.
According to federal data cited in the announcement, Americans pay more than three times as much for brand-name drugs as patients in other advanced economies. Officials said the disparity allows other wealthy nations to impose price controls while U.S. consumers bear higher costs.
“In case after case, our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory, effectively subsidizing socialism abroad with skyrocketing prices at home,” Trump said. “So we would spend tremendous amounts of money in order to provide inexpensive drugs to another country. And when I say the price is different, you can see some examples where the price is beyond anything — four times, five times different.”
As part of the agreement, AstraZeneca announced plans to invest $50 billion in U.S. manufacturing and research and development by 2030. The company will build a new facility in Charlottesville, Virginia, to produce advanced pharmaceutical ingredients for chronic disease and oncology treatments. The project is expected to create 3,600 high-skilled jobs.
The administration described the deal as a step toward ending what it called “global freeloading” on American pharmaceutical innovation and reaffirmed its goal of delivering tangible savings to patients through direct price reductions and expanded domestic production.
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