Trump to announce drug-pricing deals as 17-firm pact lags targets

The White House will announce a new round of drug-pricing agreements Monday, a White House official said, extending a voluntary approach that has drawn scrutiny over whether pledges translate into real savings for patients.

"These deals are often not transparent, so there's no way for the public to judge how meaningful they are," Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, said.

The announcement follows the administration's "most-favored-nation" drug pricing policy, under which 17 companies including Pfizer and AstraZeneca agreed to lower prices for Medicaid enrollees and cash-paying consumers using TrumpRx, a narrow government-run platform. Those deals apply only to new drugs and existing drugs available through Medicaid, and prices at TrumpRx remain above out-of-pocket costs for most consumers with commercial insurance.

The new round comes as the administration's prior voluntary health agreements have underdelivered. Insurers pledged to reduce prior authorization for 80 percent of diseases by January 2026 but achieved only about 11 percent, according to AHIP, the insurer trade group. No public dashboards have been launched to track progress.

The drug-pricing agreements are part of a broader pattern of voluntary deals the administration has struck across healthcare. In April 2025, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that food makers had pledged to phase out six synthetic dyes by the end of 2026. The FDA later quietly moved the deadline to 2027. As of December 2025, 27 companies had made voluntary pledges, but fewer than 30 percent had met their promised goals, according to Consumer Reports.

The prior authorization deal followed a similar trajectory. At a June 2025 HHS event, Kennedy and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz announced that 80 percent of insurers had pledged to reduce preauthorization requirements for 80 percent of diseases by January 2026. As of July, health plans had reduced prior authorization for medical services by about 11 percent, and some insurers that signed the pledge said they would not implement all promised reforms.

The American Medical Association's 2025 survey of 1,000 practicing doctors found only one in three believed the voluntary pledges would make a meaningful difference. Insurers made a similar promise in 2018 during the previous Trump administration; the following year, more than 80 percent of doctors said prior authorization requests had increased.

Voluntary pledges fall short across healthcare

The voluntary approach fits the administration's anti-regulatory stance and allows quick announcements that Trump and his allies can tout as accomplishments. But critics argue the deals lack enforcement mechanisms. "It's just all talk," said Leslie Dach, who chairs Protect Our Care, a healthcare advocacy group. "They just govern for a day of publicity, and then it's over."

The pattern echoes a failed precedent. President Jimmy Carter in 1977 proposed legislative limits on hospital costs; Congress rejected the plan in favor of a voluntary industry approach that ultimately collapsed once public attention faded.

New round tests investor confidence in voluntary pricing

The new drug-pricing agreements will likely follow the same structure as the "most-favored-nation" deals — voluntary commitments from pharmaceutical companies to lower prices on specific products. The White House has called the previous round "the largest drug price cuts in history," though analysts note the deals are narrow in scope and don't apply to existing drugs used by more than 200 million Americans with commercial or private health insurance.

Drugmakers saw largely positive market reactions after the previous agreements were announced, partly because the deals are limited in scope and exist largely in principle. The new round could test whether investors remain confident that voluntary pricing commitments won't materially affect revenue projections.

The announcement Monday will be closely watched for which companies participate and what specific price reductions are promised. The administration has not yet disclosed details of the new agreements.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.