"The same drugs, produced in the same factories, in the same doses, cost Americans up to 1.000 percent more than in any other country. That is unacceptable," Donald Trump has said for years, and now he writes on the TrumpRx website with discounted drug prices launched on February 5, 2026.
Which medications are currently on the discounted list?
At prices reduced by up to 80-90 percent compared to the previous ones, TrumpRx is initially offering 43 medications, primarily some of the most sought-after prescription drugs in the US - including Ozempic, a diabetes drug that is also used for weight loss, as well as Wegovy and Zepbound.
Fertility drugs Gonal-F, Cetrotide and Ovidrel are also being offered at greatly reduced prices. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said at the launch of the program that "thanks to these prices, the United States will have a lot of Trump babies."
There are also medications for heart disease, kidney disease, HIV, thyroid disorders, depression, high cholesterol, as well as therapies for menopause and smoking addiction.
The number and type of medications offered on the website should increase.
How does TrumpRx work?
TrumpRx is not an online pharmacy, so prescription drugs at discounted prices cannot be purchased directly.
The program works like an online product catalog, which does not require any registration: when a specific drug is selected, the service directs users to authorized drug retailers where they can get a discount. There are two ways: for some drugs, there are coupons that can be used at local pharmacies. For other drugs, the discounted price is available through some online pharmacies or directly through the manufacturer's website.
Prescriptions are not sent to TrumpRx, but rather the doctor sends them to the pharmacy or website of the patient's choice.
Which patients could benefit?
Discounted prices at TrumpRx are currently only available to patients in the US who pay for their medications themselves.
That's why the program's biggest beneficiaries, for now, are those who have no health insurance at all, of whom there are just under 30 million. These are often freelancers, restaurant workers, or small business owners. They earn too much to qualify for free government Medicaid and too little to afford private insurance (which can cost over $1.000 a month).
Those whose insurance does not cover expensive branded drugs can also benefit, as well as those who have reached the annual drug coverage limit of their insurance - by purchasing through TrumpRx, they can bridge the time at lower prices until their insurance is fully activated again.
The medications covered by the program are limited exclusively to original, branded products.
Matthew Klebanoff, a physician and health researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, tells DW: "The site lists some brand-name drugs that already have cheap generic alternatives. For example, Protonix, an anti-reflux drug, is listed at $200 per month, while the generic version costs about $10."
However, generics often do not exist for drugs for diabetes, cancer or autoimmune diseases – or they are too expensive.
Who won't benefit from TrumpRx for now?
About 159 million people in the United States have employer-sponsored health insurance. In October 2025, when the government's price-cutting program was announced, experts speaking to the Wall Street Journal estimated that 90 percent of them were unlikely to save money through TrumpRx.
This is also stated on TrumpRx, with each drug: "If you have insurance, check your co-pay first — it may be even lower."
Klebanoff also says that "if patients purchase medications outside of their insurance, those costs do not count toward the threshold after which insurance takes over payment, nor toward the annual out-of-pocket maximum — so total spending over the year may be higher."
He says this program represents a step forward for Americans, but much more is needed.
"We need a fundamental reform of the way drug prices are set in the United States. Currently, manufacturers can set prices based on what the market can bear," Klebanoff said.
Average Americans will benefit if this direct-sales program forces health insurance companies to permanently lower their monthly premiums and co-payments. This could be achieved by eliminating the role of intermediaries between pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies who charge high commissions and thus increase the cost of the entire system. There are proposals to either eliminate them altogether or to have only an administrative role.
Why are pharmaceutical giants lowering prices in the US?
In mid-May last year, Trump issued an executive order titled "Ensuring Most-Favoured-Nation Pricing for Prescription Drugs for American Patients."
The agreements that the Trump administration is concluding with pharmaceutical companies on this basis aim to align drug prices with the lowest prices in OECD members whose GDP per capita is at least 60 percent of that of the United States. According to current data, this group includes 16 countries, of which Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland have a higher GDP than the United States, and Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom and Finland have a lower GDP per capita than the United States.
Pharmaceutical companies have faced the risk that the Trump administration will expand import tariffs on their products. And the government's willingness to take "additional aggressive action" if prices do not fall is interpreted by experts as a threat to use a legal mechanism that allows the state to practically "seize" patents for drugs developed with public money and allow others to produce them more cheaply.
Companies that have agreed to lower prices through TrumpRx avoid both.
The first to join the program was pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which announced in September 2025 that it had entered the program “voluntarily” in exchange for a three-year grace period during which its products would not be affected by tariffs. The agreement was further conditioned on Pfizer increasing its investment in manufacturing its drugs in the United States.
Agreements were later signed by other global players such as AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Merck, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and Sanofi – a total of 16 of the 17 to whom Trump addressed the letter in May last year.
Many of them are headquartered in Europe or are multinational companies with a strong European presence, but it is not yet clear whether these drastic discounts in the US will affect drug prices in other countries.
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