Chicago – September 15, 2025
President Donald Trump wants drugmakers to lower their prices in the US — so he’ll push them to raise prices in other countries to offset the hit to their bottom line, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Friday.
“The president’s going to say that you drug manufacturers cannot sell here unless you sell there at a higher price. Stop being willing to sell to them at such a low price,” Lutnick said Friday on “The Axios Show.”
Lutnick’s comments are the latest in a series of pronouncements by the Trump administration aimed at pressuring pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug prices for Americans.
The president’s main effort centers on getting drugmakers to offer the same price in the US as they do in Europe and other peer countries, the so-called “Most Favored Nation” price. Trump has repeatedly said that US patients are subsidizing their counterparts elsewhere. Americans paid nearly three times as much for medications as did people in comparable countries in 2022.
However, experts have questioned Trump’s authority to dictate drug prices in other countries or force companies to sell at certain prices in the US. Any mandate would likely be met with legal action.
Most Favored Nation pricing
Trump tried to force “Most Favored Nation” pricing on the pharmaceutical industry near the end of his first term, finalizing a rule for a model program in which Medicare would pay the that price for 50 drugs administered in doctors’ offices. But the initiative was quickly blocked in court on procedural grounds and later rescinded by the Biden administration.
