Pfizer's drug price cuts yield three-year Trump tariff reprieve

WASHINGTON — Pfizer Inc. secured a reprieve from President Donald Trump’s long-threatened tariffs on the pharmaceutical industry Tuesday by agreeing to slash some of its drug prices by up to 85% and selling directly to the American public, a move other major drugmakers are expected to follow.

Pfizer said it will ensure Americans receive comparable prices to those offered in other countries and will launch new medicines at parity, addressing a key Trump complaint that Americans unfairly shoulder the highest medical costs in the world. In exchange, the company gained a three-year grace period from widely anticipated pharmaceutical tariffs that the administration has been promulgating.

It’s the latest example of the transactional nature of winning tariff exemptions from Trump, who has unilaterally wielded trade policy to exert power over multiple industries. As recently as last week, he threatened 100% tariffs on the pharmaceutical industry.

Similar deals could be forthcoming. Eli Lilly & Co. said it’s in active discussions with the administration to further expand patient access, as the announcement Tuesday underscores the urgency of making medicines more affordable.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested the administration was holding its national security probe into pharmaceutical imports that could pave the way for new tariffs, as officials engage in talks with major drugmakers.

“While we’re negotiating with these companies we’re going to let them play out and finish these negotiations,” Lutnick said.

Threat reduction

The latest deal appears to resolve two major threats facing Pfizer. It averts more damaging pricing policies on medicines, while shielding the company from tariffs tied to the administration’s Section 232 investigation into whether drug costs represent a national security threat.

The deal is a boon for Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla, who has struggled to replace flagging sales of Covid vaccines and therapies that were in high demand during the pandemic. It also yielded rare praise from U.S. health officials, who previously criticized the CEO and his company.

“Albert and I have had a long history of antipathy and antagonism toward each other,” said Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has repeatedly questioned the safety of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine. “But I have to say his leadership in this took tremendous courage, and he really created a template for corporate responsibility, for putting public health ahead of his individual interests.”

Pfizer shares rose as much as 5.6% after the tariff relief was announced, touching a session high. The stock had declined 10% this year through Monday’s close, trailing the S&P 500 Index’s 13% gain.

The company will offer a large majority of its primary care treatments and some specialty brands at discounts of up to 85% — and at an average of 50% off — on a direct-to-consumer website called TrumpRx. The initiative is intended to allow Americans to pay for prescriptions at discounted rates that are negotiated by the government.

Trump previously said that his administration would impose 100% duties on branded pharmaceuticals starting Wednesday unless a company was building U.S. manufacturing plants. The latest comments from the president and his advisers indicate that threat was a negotiating ploy to get companies to lower prices on their products.

“They’re all coming in over the next week. We’re making deals with all of them. And I said if we don’t make a deal, then we’re going to tariff them an extra 5, 6, 7, 8%. Whatever the difference is, we’ll take that away,” Trump said.

Guidance unchanged

Wall Street took the announcement as a broad win for drugmakers, with the S&P 500 Pharmaceuticals Index climbing 3.8%. The industry has been girding for tariffs and other penalties since Trump took office.

“Today’s deal seems to set a path for other pharmaceutical players to follow, allowing for headline pricing concessions and a Trump ‘win’ without more punitive implementation” of pricing demands or tariffs, said Evan Seigerman, a BMO Capital Markets analyst.

Still, analysts said the impact on patients’ pocketbooks — and the hit to Pfizer’s bottom line — is likely to be meager. Prices at the pharmacy counter are the result of an opaque system of negotiation and rebates that render drug pricing a black box.

“For all the hype and commentary around delivering a transformative win for lower drug prices, it’s worth noting that Pfizer’s press release didn’t change a single financial metric or piece of guidance,” wrote Cantor analyst Carter Gould. “The immediate stock reaction across the group affirms our view this is more optics than bite, and the sector is appropriately trading higher on fading MFN concerns.”

Most pharmaceutical companies declined to comment on the Pfizer news or didn’t return inquiries seeking comment. Merck & Co. said it’s committed to working with the administration and supports raising foreign prices and lowering U.S. prices. Novo Nordisk A/S said it engaged in discussions with the administration and is focused on improving patient access and affordability.

Medicaid price cuts

Pfizer will offer across-the-board reductions on U.S. prices for Americans enrolled in the Medicaid insurance program, giving them “most favored nation” pricing on some of its medicines, Trump said. He has repeatedly pressured companies to bring their U.S. prices in line with what foreign countries pay.

Pfizer also plans a $70 billion push on research and development and domestic manufacturing over the next few years, Bourla said. The company had been one of the rare exceptions among major drugmakers who rushed to highlight the return of manufacturing facilities to the U.S. amid pressure from Trump.

“We now have the certainty and stability we need on two critical fronts, tariffs and pricing, that have suppressed the industry’s valuations to historic lows,” Bourla said in a statement.

Pfizer didn’t specify which of its medicines would be made available on TrumpRx but said the majority of its primary care drugs would be offered on the site. Pfizer’s top-selling drugs include the blood-thinner Eliquis, the pneumonia vaccine Prevnar, and a shot and pill for Covid.

Large corporations and powerful executives have been able to persuade the president to give them more favorable terms by leveraging their personal relationships with him. Last month, Apple Inc. secured relief from coming tariffs on imported semiconductors after Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook presented a gold and glass statue to Trump in the Oval Office and vowed to boost the companies’ investments in the US.

“While Democrats are threatening to shut down the government to subsidize health care for illegal aliens, President Trump is leveraging the power of the federal government to drastically cut drug prices for everyday Americans,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. “Democrats talked the talk for decades about drug prices, but only President Trump is actually walking the walk.”

The most-favored-nation policy demands companies reduce Medicaid prices, increase the costs of their drugs overseas, promise to match foreign prices for future drugs to what they cost in the U.S. and set up discounted direct-to-consumer sales for some widely used medications.

Trump outlined his demands in July with letters to 17 of the world’s largest drugmakers, including Eli Lilly & Co., Novo Nordisk A/S and Pfizer. Those letters gave the companies until Sept. 29 to comply, with the president vowing to “deploy every tool in our arsenal” to punish drug makers that didn’t follow through.

The pharmaceutical industry has protested the idea of globally linked drug prices as a threat to years of U.S. dominance in biomedical research. Drugmakers warn it will sap the incentive to invent new therapies and prevent patients from getting medicines they need. Executives have urged the administration to instead turn its attention to the middlemen in the pharmaceutical supply chain, who negotiate prices on behalf of employers.

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(With assistance from Josh Wingrove, Skylar Woodhouse and Gerry Smith.)

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