The British pharmaceutical giant has joined the direct-to-consumer push, following Pfizer and Amgen’s announcements in response to the president’s calls to lower U.S. drug prices.
AstraZeneca has struck a deal with the Trump administration to offer the company’s drugs at lower prices directly to consumers. President Donald Trump is expected to announce more details from the Oval Office later Friday, MSNBC reported, citing a White House official.
The pharmaceuticals will be sold through the TrumpRx direct-to-consumer platform unveiled on Sept. 30, when Pfizer announced a similar deal with the Trump administration. As part of its arrangement, AstraZeneca will also announce a $50 billion investment in drug manufacturing and research and development in the U.S., similar to Pfizer’s $70 billion investment. Pfizer’s investment forestalled the risk of tariffs for three years, as long as the New York pharma continues to pump money into U.S. manufacturing.
AstraZeneca was one of the earliest companies to come on board the U.S. manufacturing train in response to Trump’s tariff threats, making a $50 billion commitment in July. It is not clear if the $50 billion investment announced Friday is a new, separate pledge.
With the drug pricing deal, AstraZeneca becomes the third Big Pharma to announce direct-to-consumer sales in the last two weeks. In addition to Pfizer, Amgen earlier this week announced AmgenNow, a DTC sales platform that will offer drugs to consumers at discounts off of list prices. AmgenNow will currently offer just one medicine, the lipid-lowering therapy Repatha, at a 60% discount. While the program was not announced at the White House like Pfizer and AstraZeneca, Amgen did say that the DTC platform will be offered through TrumpRx.
Reactions to the DTC push have focused on the many unknowns. Rachel Sachs, a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis who works on health law and food and drug regulation, at the time of Pfizer’s announcement questioned how any DTC arrangement would be set up.
“What’s the relationship between list prices and net prices?” she asked. “Can patients use insurance? In which programs are they offering different types of prices? What’s the relationship with these prices and international prices?”
