White House launches low cost drug web site TrumpRx providing GLP-1 weight reduction and different drugs at cheaper charges | EUROtoday
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President Donald Trump introduced the official launch of his TrumpRx on-line pharmaceutical drug market throughout a press occasion in Washington, D.C.
The web site, which works dwell tonight, is a direct-to-consumer, government-operated market permitting Americans to buy prescribed drugs at discounted costs, in keeping with the president on Thursday night.
“This is a big deal, this is a very big deal, people are gonna save a lot of money and be healthy,” Trump stated.
The president confirmed that every one Americans will be capable of buy “dozens” of the “most commonly used prescription drugs” via the portal.
Trump stated particularly that fashionable GLP-1 weight-loss medicine will likely be included, noting that Ozempic “will come down from $1,000 to $199. “
“Novo Nordisk will be slashing the price, as an example of Ozempic, from more than $1,000 to to $199,” he said.
He also said that the price of Wegovy, another GLP-1, will drop from $1,300 to $199.
The president claimed that the reduced drug prices secured by his administration mark the “largest reduction in prescription drug prices in history by many, many times, and it’s not even close.”
The discounted prices offered on the website represent Trump’s oft-touted “most favored nations” pricing scheme. Drug companies have agreed to sell the American public prescription drugs at the same rate as the nation that is paying the least for the drug, thereby ending what Trump described as the American people “effectively subsidizing the cost of drugs for the entire world.”
He noted that, while prices will come down significantly for Americans, they are likely to increase in other nations.
Dr Mehmet Oz, Trump’s Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, spoke during the event and demonstrated how the site works.
The website provides access to the direct-to-consumer purchasing platforms for major pharmaceutical companies and has links to coupons that can be taken to a pharmacy for in-person drug purchases.
During his presentation, he said TrumpRx would protect the “most vulnerable” Americans by offering them entry to inexpensive medicine.
“One in three Americans are turned away from the drugstore,” Oz stated. “They can’t afford the drugs. No more. Our most vulnerable are protected.”
Thursday’s announcement comes after months of hype from Trump and high administration officers who’ve made the deliberate TrumpRx web site a central plank of their pitch to voters who stay skeptical of the president’s work to sort out the cost-of-living issues that led voters to return him to the White House regardless of a number of prison indictments — and convictions on greater than 30 felonies in his former house state of New York.
Trump and different administration figures have teased the TrumpRx web site for months as he has hosted numerous pharmaceutical business leaders within the Oval Office to announce pricing agreements underneath which their respective corporations would provide American clients the identical costs for his or her prescriptions which can be paid in international international locations and make investments in American manufacturing amenities.
Trump’s “most favored nation” pricing mannequin is aimed toward making drugs extra inexpensive for low-income Americans, together with these on Medicaid, by connecting shoppers immediately with producers who will cost costs equal to these paid by sufferers in international locations with single-payer well being care programs.
The president first pushed the thought of forcing drug corporations to match costs provided overseas throughout his earlier time period, however confronted important resistance from the business, together with pushback in a lawsuit that resulted in a federal courtroom order blocking his administration from carrying the plan out as a result of it had did not observe correct regulatory procedures.
After returning to the White House, he revived the plan in an govt order he issued in May, which directed his administration to take numerous actions to deliver drug costs within the U.S. in step with costs negotiated between pharmaceutical corporations and international international locations which have single-payer well being programs, such because the British NHS.
Last July, he despatched letters to main drug corporations demanding that they convey down costs provided to Americans to match the negotiated costs obtainable in international international locations.
In the eight months since, 14 main drug corporations gave in to his demand by hanging agreements to supply “most-favored nation” costs to Americans and take part within the TrumpRx web site.
But the purportedly decrease costs provided by the web site might not make a lot distinction to voters who’re reeling from skyrocketing insurance coverage premiums within the wake of his administration’s determination to not help extending Covid-era tax credit that lowered the price of well being plans bought on Affordable Care Act exchanges.
In January, Trump unveiled an alternate plan that may institute direct funds as an alternative to the direct federal subsidies that expired on the finish of final yr.
Millions of Americans have been left dealing with large price will increase for his or her plans in 2026 as Congress left in December with out discovering a legislative path to increase the premium tax credit.
The White House plan additionally requires a crackdown on pharmacy profit managers and broadening the scope of medicines that may be bought over-the-counter, which the administration hopes will minimize down on physician’s appointments. It additionally asks Congress to codify the “most-favored nation” standing the White House has used to safe commerce agreements aimed toward decreasing drug costs.
The TrumpRx web site rollout additionally comes because the White House is dealing with headwinds on affordability issues with simply 9 months remaining till voters determine whether or not to increase the Republican Party’s unified management of Washington.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trumprx-website-announcement-white-house-drug-prices-b2914995.html