Trump Announces Drug Pricing Deal with Regeneron

President Donald Trump announced a major drug pricing agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals on Thursday, marking the conclusion of negotiations with all 17 pharmaceutical companies initially targeted by his administration. The deal includes price reductions for current and future Regeneron drugs covered under Medicaid programs.

The agreement is part of Trump's signature initiative to lower U.S. prescription drug prices through so-called most-favored-nation deals, which aim to align American drug prices with those in other developed nations. As part of this arrangement, Regeneron has committed $27 billion for research, development and manufacturing investments within the United States.

Regeneron also announced that Otarmeni, its new gene therapy for a rare form of congenital hearing loss, received approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under an expedited program. The company will provide this treatment at no charge to clinically eligible individuals in the U.S., according to multiple reports.

Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer told CNBC that while Otarmeni would be free in America, international pricing has yet to be determined but should reflect what other countries can afford. 'We haven't set a price yet, but they should pay their fair share outside the United States,' he said.

About 50 babies annually are born with this rare genetic condition in the U.S., making it unlikely to generate significant revenue for Regeneron despite its clinical importance. The FDA's newly created National Priority Voucher program expedited Otarmeni's approval process, which aims to accelerate reviews of drugs addressing national health priorities.

The Trump administration has touted these drug pricing deals as transformative, though details remain undisclosed to the public. Pressed by Congress for transparency this week, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. indicated his team would share whatever information possible without revealing proprietary data or trade secrets.

Drug-making giant Johnson & Johnson will officially start marketing four of its medications on the Trump administration's TrumpRx website on Friday, according to CBS News. The pharmaceutical company announced in January that it had entered into a voluntary agreement with the Trump administration to lower costs for Americans by providing Medicaid access to affordable prescriptions and marketing its drugs on TrumpRx in exchange for exemption from the president's tariff agenda.

One of the drugs offered on White House's discounted pharmaceutical site is metformin, a popular prescription to treat Type 2 diabetes. The others are metformin extended relief; Invokana, another diabetes medication; and Xarelto, a blood thinner. Johnson & Johnson previously agreed to invest $55 billion in research and production sites in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.

The addition of Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals to the TrumpRx site means the administration has more than doubled the number of drugs featured on the low-cost site since it first launched in February. The prescription drug prices on the site, however, are only available to patients who are uninsured or whose insurance doesn't cover them and who must pay the full list price out of pocket.