Industry leader Steve Ubl has served as PhRMA’s CEO for more than a decade, the longest tenure of any head of the trade group.
After more than 10 years, Steve Ubl, CEO of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, will give up the reins of the influential industry lobby group.
Ubl will retire from his post at the end of the year but will stay on until a replacement is found “to ensure a smooth transition,” according to a news release on Wednesday.
Ubl first thought about leaving Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America—also known by the shorthand PhRMA—after the 2024 U.S. elections, but was convinced by the group’s board to stay, he told The Washington Post in an interview on Tuesday in advance of the formal announcement. Ubl insisted, however, that his decision to step away now hasn’t been influenced by the Trump administration or its policies, some of which he said were beneficial to the industry.
After PhRMA, Ubl plans to go into teaching, consulting and serving on the boards of other industry groups, according to WaPo. PhRMA’s board has started the search for his successor.
Ubl assumed leadership of PhRMA in 2015, shepherding the organization—and the industry more broadly—through the COVID-19 pandemic and three administrations that have enacted various policies to bring down drug prices.
Among these is the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which the Biden administration signed into law in August 2022. The legislation opens up some of the most widely used prescription drugs to price negotiations from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. PhRMA under Ubl launched a strong legal offensive against the program, joining some of the biggest drugmakers in claiming that the scheme was unconstitutional.
PhRMA’s efforts resulted in mixed legal success, and the group hit a rough patch in 2023 when several high-profile members such as AbbVie and AstraZeneca pulled out. PhRMA persisted, however, and in February this year named Merck CEO Robert Davis as the new chair of its board.
“What I’m most proud of is really putting the organization on offense,” Ubl told WaPo on Tuesday.
PhRMA has continued to push for the industry’s interests even as the second Trump administration ramps up its campaign to lower drug prices—something that Ubl’s successor will have to face. Since taking office in January 2024, Trump has put in place a slew of price control policies—and sometimes even resorted to threats—to pressure drugmakers to bring down their prices.
In May 2025, the White House announced its Most Favored Nation (MFN) mandate, which seeks to bring down U.S. drug prices to the same level as in other similarly developed countries. Earlier this year, the government launched TrumpRx, a direct-to-patient platform where many companies have agreed to market their products at steep discounts.
More recently—and after months of tarrying—President Donald Trump last week announced 100% tariffs on pharma imports, with carve-outs for some companies that have agreed to comply with certain government mandates, such as onshoring manufacturing operations and complying with MFN pricing.
