United States President Donald Trump on Friday announced a new agreement with AstraZeneca, marking his administration’s second major deal with a global pharmaceutical company to lower prescription drug prices for American consumers.
The announcement came during an Oval Office meeting between Trump and AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, where the president hailed the agreement as “another historic achievement in our quest to lower drug prices for all Americans,” Al Jazeera reported.
‘Massive Discounts’ Promised
Trump reiterated his claim that Americans could expect steep discounts on medications. “Americans can expect discounts, and as I said, it could be, in many cases, way over a hundred percent,” he declared. He went on to cite examples such as asthma inhalers, which he said would be discounted by 654 per cent, calling them “a drug that’s hot, very hot.”
The president has long promoted his plan to bring US drug prices down to “most-favoured nation” levels, aligning costs with those in other developed nations.
Part Of Broader Tariff-Linked Negotiations
AstraZeneca becomes the second major drug-maker, after Pfizer, to reach a similar agreement with the Trump administration. Pfizer signed a “voluntary agreement” last month to price its products “at parity with other key developed markets” and join the administration’s planned online platform, TrumpRx.
Both agreements followed Trump’s threat in September to impose 100 per cent tariffs on pharmaceutical imports unless companies established manufacturing plants in the US. Pfizer and AstraZeneca subsequently reached deals that delayed such tariffs.
At the White House ceremony, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr praised Trump’s use of tariff leverage, saying the president had identified “extraordinary leverage to craft these deals.”
AstraZeneca Pledges New Investment
Soriot confirmed AstraZeneca had secured a three-year tariff exemption and pledged to increase US investments to $50 billion by 2030. He added that the company would expand local manufacturing, including through a newly announced multi-billion-dollar drug substance facility in Virginia.
Trump credited his tariff strategy for compelling companies to negotiate. “I would never have been able to bring him,” he said, gesturing to Soriot. “Behind the scenes, he did say tariffs were a big reason he came here.”
Services on the TrumpRx platform are expected to launch in 2026.
