In a Cabinet meeting, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the website could go live “probably in the next 10 days,” but an exact launch date remains unclear.
The White House has delayed the launch of TrumpRx, the federal government’s proposed marketplace that will allow patients to purchase their medicines directly from pharma companies.
It is unclear when exactly the platform is scheduled to go live, but Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reportedly said at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday that it will go online “probably in the next 10 days,” according to Politico. The reason behind the delay is also unclear, but Brian Reid, a health consultant and principal at the firm Reid Strategic, told the publication that anti-kickback concerns could have played a part.
“In any other administration, it would 100 percent be the [anti-kickback statute] stuff,” Reid told Politico. “It’s clear there’s a lawyer somewhere at HHS who has concerns about anti-kickback.”
Indeed, earlier this week, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General released a special advisory bulletin meant to help pharma companies offer their products on TrumpRx “in a manner that’s low risk under the federal anti-kickback statute, so long as key safeguards are met.”
These safeguards, according to the guidance document, include not billing the drug purchase to Medicare, Medicaid or other federal coverage programs, ensuring the patient has a valid prescription from an independent prescriber and not offering controlled substances.
Additionally, pharma companies that want to participate in TrumpRx should not use the platform as a “vehicle” to promote other reimbursable products, nor should they condition their direct-to-consumer pricing on any future purchases.
Big Pharms have lined up to join TrumpRx. First out of the gate was Pfizer, which in late September announced that it would put some of its drugs on the government’s platform for an average discount of 50%. AstraZeneca soon followed suit, offering three of its inhalers for discounts ranging from 96% to 654%, according to a White House fact sheet.
Sanofi also signed up to TrumpRx last month, promising an average discount of 61% for certain drugs for diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
But while TrumpRx promises to lower drug costs for Americans, experts remain skeptical of how effective it will be. “Many insured individuals—especially those under Medicare Part D—already face low or zero out-of-pocket costs due to coverage caps,” Jason Shafrin, senior managing director of the Center for Healthcare Economics & Policy at FTI Consulting, told BioSpace in an email in November 2025.
“Only the uninsured or those with high-deductible plans might experience net savings through DTC purchases, while the majority of insured patients would pay less through traditional insurance channels,” Shafrin added.
