At Mercola.com, Dr. Joseph Mercola explains the forthcoming effort from the Trump administration to lower drug prices, currently called TrumpRx, which has just signed on Pfizer as a partner in an effort to lower drug prices for Americans. Mercola writes:
Prescription drugs in the U.S. cost nearly 2.78 times more than in other developed countries, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services analyzed by RAND Health Care.1 That means a medication costing $100 in Germany could cost close to $300 in the U.S. The disparity is even worse for brand-name drugs, which are often more than 3.22 times higher than in peer nations.
For millions of Americans, these inflated prices aren’t just inconvenient — they’re devastating. They force hard choices between filling a prescription or paying for food, rent, or other essentials. For decades, pharmaceutical companies have defended these prices by claiming that Americans fund the world’s research and development. The result is a system where U.S. consumers subsidize cheaper drugs for other nations while paying the highest prices on Earth.
It’s a pattern that has persisted across administrations and political divides, despite repeated promises to lower costs. Even as new therapies enter the market, they often do so first in the U.S. — at the highest price point — locking patients into a system that prioritizes profit over access.
President Donald Trump’s administration is now taking another run at this problem with TrumpRx, a government-run website designed to lower drug prices through direct-to-consumer sales. Pfizer is the first major partner to sign on, pledging to sell many drugs at discounts of up to 50% and to match prices charged in other wealthy countries.2
TrumpRx represents an attempt to bypass the middlemen — insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, and wholesalers — who drive much of the current cost inflation. This effort marks a major shift in how Americans might one day access prescription medications, setting the stage for a broader conversation about why U.S. drug prices are so high and what it will take to finally change them.
Read more here.
