In a bold policy announcement on Sunday, former President Donald Trump declared he will sign a new executive order aimed at lowering prescription drug costs in the United States by up to 80%. The order, which Trump called one of the most consequential in the nation’s history, will tie the price Americans pay for pharmaceuticals to the lowest rate paid by any other country.
The order, described as a “Most Favored Nation” policy, is designed to eliminate what Trump sees as an unfair system that forces Americans to subsidize lower drug costs for other nations. “Our Country will finally be treated fairly,” Trump stated on Truth Social, “and our citizens’ Healthcare Costs will be reduced by numbers never even thought of before.”
This move follows his recent vow to impose major tariffs on pharmaceuticals, targeting an industry that, according to many reports, enjoys higher profit margins in the U.S. than nearly anywhere else. “We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals,” Trump said in a recent speech. “And once we do that, they’re going to come rushing back into our country because we’re the big market.”
Data from a 2024 Rand Corporation report confirms the disparity: U.S. drug prices average nearly 2.8 times higher than those in 33 other developed nations. For brand-name medications, the gap is even more severe—American consumers pay over four times more on average than patients in other countries.
One of the key problems contributing to high prices in the United States is the lack of transparency in drug pricing and the absence of a centralized entity negotiating prices on behalf of consumers. In contrast, most other nations rely on national health services or regulatory bodies that negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies, ensuring lower prices for their citizens.
Trump’s plan attempts to level the global pharmaceutical playing field by making America’s drug pricing competitive with nations that have long paid less—often at America’s expense. The former president also claimed that the U.S. would save “trillions of dollars” through this policy.
While the long-term implementation and enforcement of the executive order will likely face legal and bureaucratic challenges, the announcement sets a clear tone: the U.S. will no longer tolerate inflated drug costs while subsidizing lower prices abroad. Whether future administrations uphold or dismantle the policy will reveal how serious the government is about putting American patients before foreign pharmaceutical profits.
