Astellas Pharma, BridgeBio, BeOne Medicines and six other large biotechs join the 17 Big Pharmas that previously signed on to President Donald Trump’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing program, representing some 89% of the branded drug market.
Nine midsize biopharma companies have agreed to voluntarily participate in the Trump administration’s drug affordability push, pledging to bring down the prices of their products to the same level as in similarly developed countries.
These new participants are Alcon, Astellas Pharma, BeOne Medicines, BridgeBio, CSL, Kyowa Kirin, Sun Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals and UCB, according to a White House release on Monday. They join the 17 Big Pharmas that had previously signed on to President Donald Trump’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing program, for a total of 26 companies representing some 89% of the branded drug market, the White House said.
Monday’s agreements will lower prices for medicines for chronic and rare diseases such as hemophilia, Parkinson’s, glaucoma and several forms of cancer, among other conditions.
Aside from cutting drug costs, those nine companies have collectively committed at least $19.6 billion in near-term manufacturing investments in the U.S., the White House said. UCB, Sun Pharma, Astellas and Teva have additionally promised to contribute to the Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve, a government stockpile to protect the domestic supply of essential medicines.
“We see a net benefit for [companies],” Truist Securities wrote in an investor note on Monday, explaining that joining President Donald Trump’s pricing programs could provide “relief from tariffs” and “exemption from liability under the mandatory GLOBE and GUARD MFN demonstrations in Medicare.”
GLOBE and GUARD are mandatory models requiring rebates from manufacturers for certain medicines under Medicare Part B and Part D, respectively, if the prices for these drugs go above those in economically comparable countries, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). GLOBE is slated to start Oct. 1, while GUARD launches Jan. 1, 2027.
Separately from these nine companies, Incyte on Monday also announced that it has entered into an agreement with CMS to improve access to the company’s Jakafi and Jakafi XR. In particular, the company has agreed to provide these products at prices “aligned” with costs in similar industrialized countries.
In exchange, Incyte similarly expects that it will be exempt from certain pricing mandates in the future, as per an SEC filing.
Truist doesn’t expect these pricing agreements to heavily impact the drug manufacturers that chose to participate. “For the sector, we continue to believe MFN has migrated from existential threat to a negotiated and manageable ‘cost of doing business,” the firm said. “We continue to anticipate business as usual.”
Indeed, many of the industry’s largest companies reached similar drug pricing agreements with the government months ago and have not reported significant impacts of MFN to their businesses. These include Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Amgen, Sanofi, Novartis and Bristol Myers Squibb, among others.
Of note, Jefferies on Tuesday morning noted that Takeda, arguably the largest Japanese drugmaker, has yet to reach a drug pricing deal with the Trump administration, though negotiations are reportedly underway.
