Trump struck deals with 16 drug companies. But they’re still raising prices this year

Since September, 16 main drug firms have inked offers with the Trump administration to decrease costs. However in January — the time of 12 months when pharmaceutical firms sometimes roll out worth hikes — all 16 firms launched increased record costs for a few of their medication.

The agreements, nicknamed “most favored nation” offers, had been aimed toward getting decrease costs for American shoppers and pushing different rich international locations to pay increased costs for brand new medication.

However drug firms, together with the 16 that made offers, raised the costs of 872 brand-name medication within the first two weeks of 2026, in keeping with a brand new evaluation by 46brooklyn, a drug worth analysis agency.

The medication with worth hikes included medicines to deal with most cancers, coronary heart failure and Kind 2 diabetes. The worth of some COVID pictures additionally went up.

“The true reality serum is what’s occurring within the market after these offers happen,” says Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn, a nonprofit that tracks the record costs of prescription medicines. “January is prime time for record worth modifications on brand-name medication. So in analyzing the place we’re as we speak, we’re just about in step with the previous couple of years.”

The worth will increase got here in at a median of 4% — the identical as final 12 months — regardless of the offers introduced with fanfare by the Trump administration.

Pharmaceutical record costs are the start line for negotiations with insurers and the middlemen often called pharmacy profit managers. Listing costs play a task during which medication insurers select to cowl and what the affected person in the end pays out of pocket on the pharmacy counter.

Requested concerning the worth hikes and whether or not they break the phrases of the offers, White Home spokesperson Kush Desai stated the record costs aren’t vital and that the precise reductions addressed within the offers are coming to state Medicaid applications and sufferers who need to pay money for some prescriptions.

The White Home introduced Thursday that it was asking Congress to go laws to assist its Nice Healthcare Plan. Throughout a press name, Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies, claimed the plan would “codify” what was within the individually negotiated drug firm offers.

What we all know concerning the offers

Particulars are exhausting to return by for the reason that administration’s deal paperwork have not been made public.

Through the press conferences, well being and White Home officers talked about the businesses had made commitments for Medicaid reductions — however that is one thing this system already will get, says Dr. Ben Rome, a well being coverage researcher at Brigham and Ladies’s Hospital.

The offers additionally included pledges for future medication to be launched on the similar worth in different rich international locations as within the U.S. And a few medication shall be made out there at a reduction to cash-paying prospects — that’s, those that are uninsured or not utilizing their medical insurance — by a brand new web site known as TrumpRx.gov.

However these efforts do not have an effect on costs for lots of the businesses’ merchandise and most well being care shoppers and insurance policy.

“These offers in all probability are usually not essential when it comes to producer drug pricing and the costs paid by most Individuals for pharmaceuticals,” says Rome.

Pfizer, which reached the primary cope with the Trump administration in September, raised the costs of 72 merchandise in January, in keeping with 46brooklyn. They embody a 15% improve on the worth of its COVID shot.

New York-based Pfizer says its new worth will increase had been modest, and essential to put money into new medicines and deal with added bills. In an electronic mail to NPR, the corporate additionally identified that whereas record costs have gone up, the costs that insurance coverage firms truly wind up paying Pfizer, after numerous reductions and rebates paid to middlemen and different applications, have gone down.

Merck additionally raised costs on 18 merchandise, together with Isentress for HIV and Belsomra for insomnia, in keeping with 46brooklyn’s knowledge.

The New Jersey-based firm stated in an electronic mail that it made these selections “responsibly to replicate a product’s scientific worth to sufferers and the well being care system.” Requested about how the worth will increase match into its settlement with the administration, Merck spokesperson Julie Cunningham stated the “actual phrases” are “confidential,” however the firm is engaged on “fairer international pricing.”

Some drug costs went down

There have been 18 huge worth cuts within the first few days of the 12 months, in keeping with 46brooklyn. That features 4 medication that had been a part of the primary spherical of Medicare drug worth negotiation — an initiative launched by the Biden administration as a part of the Inflation Discount Act.

The negotiations lowered some drug costs paid by Medicare, however many puzzled whether or not that may additionally result in decrease costs for privately insured sufferers.

The brand new knowledge holds some clues. Fiasp, an insulin product, acquired a 75% worth reduce within the industrial market, in keeping with the 46brooklyn knowledge. The drug’s maker, Novo Nordisk, stated it additionally reduce the costs of different medication, and its objective was to make them extra reasonably priced for sufferers.

AstraZeneca’s Farxiga and Boehringer Ingelheim’s Jardiance, each used for diabetes and coronary heart failure, and the blood thinner Eliquis, made by Bristol Myers Squibb, additionally acquired worth drops between 37% and 44%.

When an organization decides to decrease costs, it is as a result of a wide range of elements and insurance policies, however 46brooklyn’s Ciaccia says, “Medicare drug worth negotiations, I might argue, are the straw that broke the camel’s again.”

Dr. Ben Rome is not positive he agrees with that evaluation: “It is exhausting to type of pin anybody drug or anybody scenario on anybody coverage,” he says. “But it surely’s in all probability a confluence of things which have led to a few of these drug [companies] making that call.”

After the primary spherical of negotiations in 2024, Medicare costs for 10 chosen medication had been diminished by 38% to 79%, with these reductions going into impact in January of 2026.

The brand new report presents a combined image of what occurred to these medication outdoors of Medicare: 4 posted huge drops in record worth this month, 4 did not have worth modifications and two had worth will increase.