AstraZeneca has reached an agreement with the White House to lower the cost of several of its prescription drugs and expand manufacturing in the United States, becoming the second major pharmaceutical company to align with the Trump administration’s drug-pricing initiative.
The agreement, announced Friday in the Oval Office, centers on a “most-favored-nation” policy for Medicaid drug pricing. Under the deal, prices for AstraZeneca’s medications sold to Medicaid would be pegged to the lowest prices offered in other developed nations. President Donald Trump described the arrangement as a significant step toward ensuring Americans pay no more for medicines than consumers abroad.
In addition to lower Medicaid prices, AstraZeneca will make several of its drugs available directly to consumers at discounts of up to 80 percent off list prices through a government-backed website called TrumpRx. The platform, expected to launch in 2026, will allow consumers to purchase medicines directly from pharmaceutical companies, bypassing insurance intermediaries. The company’s products include Bevespi Aerosphere, used for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Airsupra, an asthma medication.
In exchange for its participation, AstraZeneca will receive a three-year exemption from certain import tariffs. The company, headquartered in the United Kingdom, also pledged to expand its investment in U.S. drug manufacturing and research, including a $500 million addition to a new facility in Virginia. That project brings AstraZeneca’s total investment in the state to $4.5 billion and forms part of a broader $50 billion commitment announced in July to enhance operations across California, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas, and Virginia.
The TrumpRx initiative is part of the administration’s ongoing effort to align U.S. drug prices with those in other developed economies. The White House previously announced a similar deal with Pfizer in late September and has pressed other pharmaceutical companies to join the effort. Officials say the program aims to reduce consumer costs by eliminating middlemen and encouraging direct transactions between drugmakers and patients.
While the potential savings for consumers remain uncertain, the plan represents an unusual collaboration between the federal government and private drug manufacturers. Medicaid beneficiaries already receive some of the nation’s lowest prescription prices, and for many insured patients, copays may still be cheaper than direct purchases from pharmaceutical companies.
AstraZeneca’s move aligns with a broader trend among drugmakers responding to government pressure to bring production and pricing closer to home. During the press event, Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, urged other pharmaceutical companies to follow suit and invest in U.S. manufacturing.
President Trump said the administration has secured commitments totaling $18 trillion for reshoring pharmaceutical production, though that figure has not been independently verified. The push to reduce dependency on foreign manufacturing and lower drug prices comes amid growing public frustration over the cost of prescription medicines in the United States.
