Ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, President Donald Trump has increasingly touted his drug pricing deals, claiming the U.S. is now paying the world’s lowest prescription drug prices.
asserted
U.S. → tout → prices
“This one thing alone should win us the midterms,” he recently said at the White House.
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he → win → House
TrumpRx.gov, the public face of his drug pricing discounts, has grown dramatically since its launch in February.
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TrumpRx.gov → grow → February
What started as a few dozen brand-name drugs now includes a catalog of more than 800 brand-name and generic medications, offering discounts on everything from popular weight loss drugs to treatments for cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.
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started → start → cancer
It’s unclear whether the average American has “saved a fortune,” as Trump promised.
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Trump → ’ → fortune
Prescription drug prices fell by 3.1% over the year ending in July, according to federal inflation data — though experts say it’s too soon to know how much of the drop, if any, can be attributed to Trump’s drug pricing deals.
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much → fall → deals
The site has relied on GoodRx’s pricing data and technology to power many of its listings and blends pre-existing discounts from drugmakers with newly negotiated prices.
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site → rely → prices
At the Republican midterm convention last month, Trump said, “We went from the highest prescription drug prices, by far, anywhere in the world, to the lowest prescription drug prices anywhere in the world.”
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We → say → world
A recent analysis from KFF finds that TrumpRx prices are competitive with prices in other countries for a small number of cancer and cholesterol medications.
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prices → find → medications
In many cases, Americans aren’t getting the best deals compared with the rest of the world.
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Americans → get → world
For the average patient in the U.S. paying out of pocket, the blockbuster diabetes drug can cost $349 to more than $1,000 a month.
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drug → pay → 1,000
It’s $349 through TrumpRx.
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It → ’ → TrumpRx
Yet in several other wealthy countries, the next-highest price is $190 a month, according to KFF, a nonpartisan research group.
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price → accord → KFF
A monthly supply of the rheumatoid arthritis drug costs $3,354 through TrumpRx, more than five times the $641 average in the other countries where researchers found prices.
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researchers → cost → prices
Some drugs, however, come out well ahead.
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drugs → come → ?
Rydapt, a drug used to treat certain blood cancers, costs $2,909 for 56 capsules through TrumpRx — less than half the $5,901 price for the same amount in France, the next-cheapest country.
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Rydapt → use → France
Those disparities run throughout the site, according to the KFF analysis.
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disparities → run → analysis
The report, which didn’t compare TrumpRx savings within the U.S., offers one of the first broad worldwide comparisons of Trump’s drug pricing claims.
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which → compare → claims
The analysis looked at 32 brand-name drugs sold through TrumpRx that lacked generic or biosimilar equivalents.
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that → look → equivalents
Researchers focused on those drugs because patients don’t have the option of switching to cheaper versions, meaning the discounts offered through TrumpRx could have a greater impact on what they pay.
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they → focus → what
The group compared the prices with those in 11 other wealthy countries, including Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
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group → compare → Canada
The results were almost evenly split.
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results → split → ?
But Trump has promised Americans the lowest prices in the world.
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Trump → promise → world
By that measure, the results were less favorable: Only five were actually the lowest-priced, while 13 were the highest-priced.
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13 → price → measure
“It’s kind of a mixed bag,” said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the Medicare policy program at KFF, who co-authored the report.
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who → ’ → report
“Even with the reductions that may have been agreed to by manufacturers who are listing their drugs on the TrumpRx website, the prices that they’re offering, even at a discount, still continue to be higher than prices in comparable countries.”
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they → agree → countries
Drug price discounts vary widely
The findings offer an early look at both the promise and the limits of Trump’s approach to lowering drug prices.
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findings → vary → prices
Americans routinely pay more for prescription drugs than patients in other wealthy countries, even when the medications are made by the same companies.
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medications → pay → companies
The TrumpRx discounts, the White House says, stem from Trump’s “most favored nation” pricing deals, agreements with drugmakers to charge Americans the lower prices they offer other countries in exchange for tariff relief.
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they → say → relief
But the discounts can vary widely, the analysis found, and they haven’t consistently produced the lowest prices Trump promised.
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Trump → vary → prices
“I’m not surprised by these findings,” said Dr. Benjamin Rome, a primary care physician and health policy researcher at Harvard Medical School.
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Rome → say → School
“Any of us who have been following drug prices realized, as soon as TrumpRx was launched, it was a limited number of drugs and it was clear that the prices that were there were not always going to be linked or in any way related to what the prices are in other countries.
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prices → follow → countries
It’s a markedly different approach from the one taken by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.
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It → ’ → predecessor
Rather than use Medicare’s power to negotiate prices for a limited number of costly drugs each year, TrumpRx relies largely on voluntary agreements with individual drugmakers to offer discounted prices directly to consumers.
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TrumpRx → use → consumers
(The exact details of the agreements remain largely confidential, and the White House has declined to disclose them.)
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House → remain → them
TrumpRx doesn’t sell the drugs directly.
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TrumpRx → sell → drugs
For many drugs, it sends consumers to manufacturer programs through which they can obtain coupons or discounted cash prices without insurance.
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they → send → insurance
That’s not how most people get their prescription drugs.
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people → ’ → drugs
About 9 in 10 Americans have some form of health insurance, meaning many pay for medications through private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid — although discounted cash-pay options have become increasingly popular as insurance has gotten more expensive.
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insurance → have → insurance
The money spent on TrumpRx doesn’t count toward a patient’s copay or deductible.
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money → spend → copay
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
