Trump unveils deal with Regeneron to lower drug prices as part of
most-favored-nation initiative
[April 24, 2026]
By ALI SWENSON
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a deal with drugmaker
Regeneron to lower the cost of its pharmaceutical products as part of
the White House's signature drug pricing initiative.
The deal involves Regeneron lowering the prices of all its current and
future drugs on Medicaid, according to Trump. It also involves selling a
cholesterol drug called Praluent for $225 on the White House's
discounted drug website TrumpRx, according to the agreement first
outlined by NOTUS and confirmed in a White House fact sheet.
The deal comes as the Trump administration has been touting efforts to
provide economic relief ahead of November's midterm elections, with
Americans saying high costs for health care, gas, groceries and other
basic needs are straining their budgets.
It's one of many so-called most-favored-nation deals the Trump
administration has made with drug companies to bring U.S. pharmaceutical
prices to the same level as other developed nations. Last July, Trump
publicly sent letters to executives at 17 major pharmaceutical companies
about the issue. Regeneron is the final one of those companies to strike
a deal with his administration.
Speaking at the White House on Thursday to announce the deal, Trump
touted the discounts on drugs and said, “It should be front page news.”
He said voters in this November's midterm elections should reward his
party because of the agreements with drugmakers.
“We should win the midterms, but it doesn’t work that way,
unfortunately,” Trump said.
Trump also has a notable history with the drugmaker.
During his first term in 2020, when he was hospitalized with COVID-19,
he was given a dose of a drug that Regeneron was testing to supply
antibodies in order to help his immune system.
After he was released, Trump posted a video of himself standing outside
the White House in which he repeatedly lavished praise on Regeneron.
As part of the new deal, Regeneron has also committed to spending $27
billion in research, development and manufacturing in the U.S.,
according to the White House fact sheet. Trump’s deals have historically
offered companies relief from his tariffs if they make such commitments.
Regeneron also announced Thursday that Otarmeni, its new gene therapy
for a rare form of congenital hearing loss, had been approved by the
Food and Drug Administration and would be made available to clinically
eligible individuals in the U.S. at no charge. The therapy received
expedited approval from the FDA under the agency’s so-called
Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher program.
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President Donald Trump speaks during an event on health care
affordability in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, April
23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
 The program, which was not
authorized by Congress, has been under scrutiny from Democrats in
Congress for months. House and Senate lawmakers have noted that FDA
vouchers have repeatedly gone to companies that agree to pricing
concessions sought by the White House.
Even as Trump and his Department of Health and Human Services have
touted his drug-pricing deals as transformative, the details of the
agreements have so far not been made public.
Pressed by members of Congress to share the contracts this week,
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his team would share
whatever details it could that didn't include proprietary
information or trade secrets. Trump and Kennedy have urged Congress
to codify the deals into law.
The deals have occasionally run into roadblocks. A centerpiece of
the agreements with weight-loss drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo
Nordisk fell apart earlier this week when Medicare delayed
implementation of a program for insurers to cover the GLP-1 drugs.
Drug prices for patients in the U.S. can depend on a number of
factors, including the competition a treatment faces and insurance
coverage. Most people have coverage through work, the individual
insurance market or government programs like Medicaid and Medicare,
which shield them from much of the cost.
Patients on Medicaid, the state and federally funded program for
people with low incomes, already pay a nominal co-payment of a few
dollars to fill their prescriptions, but lower prices could help
state budgets that fund the programs.
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Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone and Michelle L. Price
contributed to this report.
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