Trump's drugmaker deals may save economy $529B over 10 years, White
House says
[May 06, 2026]
By JOSH BOAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House economists estimate that President Donald
Trump's deals with pharmaceutical companies to drop some of their U.S.
prescription drug prices to what they charge in other countries could
save $529 billion over the next 10 years.
The analysis obtained by The Associated Press includes the first
economy-wide projections behind a policy at the core of Trump's pitch to
voters going into November’s midterm elections for control of the House
and Senate. Democratic lawmakers have been doubtful about the savings
claimed by Trump and these new numbers are likely to trigger additional
questions about the data.
Cost-of-living issues are at the forefront of voters' concerns and
higher energy prices tied to the Iran war have deepened the public's
anxiety. Trump has tried in part to address affordability concerns by
focusing on his efforts to cut deals with companies so that the cost of
prescription drugs in the U.S. would no longer be dramatically higher
than in other affluent nations.
“Now you have the lowest drug prices anywhere in the world,” Trump said
at a Friday rally before a crowd of seniors in Florida. “And that alone
should win us the midterms.”
The analysis was done by administration officials for the White House
Council of Economic Advisers. They also estimated that federal and state
governments could save a combined $64.3 billion on Medicaid during the
next decade because of what Trump calls his “most favored nation” policy
on drug prices.
Few of the details of the deals struck by the Trump administration and
17 leading pharmaceutical companies have been made public, making it
hard to independently verify the projected savings. The White House
analysis sought to estimate the prospective savings as more medications
come onto the market and fall under Trump's framework — with one model
in the report tallying the possible savings at $733 billion over a
decade.
Trump and his Department of Health and Human Services have touted his
drug-pricing deals as transformative and urged Congress to codify their
principles into law. Democratic lawmakers have challenged the
administration's claims of savings. Senate Finance Committee Ranking
Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and 17 Senate Democrats in April proposed a
measure requiring the administration to disclose the terms of the
agreements signed by pharmaceutical companies.
“If these deals are so great, why is the Trump administration afraid of
showing them to the public?” Wyden said when announcing the measure.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his team would share details
that didn’t include proprietary information or trade secrets.
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President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a charter school in The
Villages, Fla., Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
 The potential savings estimated by
the Trump administration would be substantial as Americans spent
$467 billion on prescription drugs in 2024, according to the most
recent government data available. The analysis is premised on the
idea that foreign countries would also pay more for their
prescription drugs, which would diversify drugmakers' sources of
revenue and preserve their ability to innovate with new treatments.
The Congressional Budget Office in October 2024 estimated that a
plan similar to what Trump ended up adopting could reduce
prescription drug prices by more than 5%, though the decrease “would
probably diminish over time as manufacturers adjusted to the new
policy by altering prices or distribution of drugs in other
countries.”
The scope of the savings claimed by the Trump administration are
likely to intensify the scrutiny by Democrats, who counter that any
price reductions would be offset by higher costs for prescription
drugs not covered by the “most favored nation” framework. One of
their main critiques is that pharmaceutical companies have increased
their profit margins while working with the administration.
In April, staff working for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released an
analysis that looked at 15 of the companies that have agreed to this
drug-pricing plan and found that their combined profits jumped 66%
over the past year to $177 billion. The report noted that the tax
cuts Trump signed into law last year “exempted or delayed many of
the most expensive drugs” from price negotiations with Medicare.
The Trump administration has countered that they consider Sanders'
critique to be flawed, saying that it's based on the list prices for
pharmaceutical drugs instead the actual price that patients pay.
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