White House unveils nine new “most-favored-nation” drug pricing deals
President Trump’s White House has implemented a revived most-favored-nation (MFN) drug pricing policy aimed at ensuring Americans pay no more than the lowest price charged for the same drugs in other developed countries.12
On May 12, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order, “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients,” directing actions to bring US prescription prices in line with those paid abroad.12
As part of this policy, the administration has entered into a series of MFN pricing agreements with major pharmaceutical manufacturers, requiring them to offer MFN-level prices on certain existing and future products in specified US channels.12
A high‑profile set of deals covers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, dramatically cutting US prices for popular diabetes and weight‑loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy.1
Under the Eli Lilly–Novo Nordisk agreements, the monthly prices of Ozempic and Wegovy fall from about $1,000 and $1,350 to $350 when purchased through designated MFN programs.1
These companies also agreed to guarantee MFN prices on all new medicines they bring to market, repatriate more foreign revenue on existing products, and extend MFN prices to all State Medicaid programs for their products.1
The administration frames these MFN deals as part of a broader effort to end “global freeloading”, arguing that Americans have been paying substantially higher prices than patients in other wealthy nations for the same medicines.12
In addition to price concessions, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk announced large US manufacturing investments, including at least $27 billion from Eli Lilly and $10 billion from Novo Nordisk to expand domestic production capacity and secure pharmaceutical supply chains.1
Legal and policy analyses describe 2025 as a pivotal year in which the administration scaled up MFN contracts across multiple large manufacturers, integrating MFN pricing into both government programs and some direct‑to‑consumer offerings.23
Industry reports note that nine leading drugmakers have now reached MFN‑style pricing accords with the administration in aggregate, representing a significant portion of the US branded drug market and marking a major shift in federal drug‑pricing strategy.23
Sources:
1. https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/11/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-announces-major-developments-in-bringing-most-favored-nation-pricing-to-american-patients/
2. https://www.sidley.com/en/insights/newsupdates/2025/12/us-drug-pricing-year-in-review-reflections-on-2025-and-getting-ready-for-2026
3. https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/top-drugmakers-reach-us-drug-price-deal-trump-administration