Trump to launch TrumpRx.gov, branding his push to lower prescription prices

President Donald Trump launched TrumpRx.gov on Thursday, a government website aimed at helping Americans purchase medications at discounted prices, capping his nearly year-long pressure campaign to extract pricing concessions from pharmaceutical companies.

Thursday night’s rollout has been one of Trump’s top political priorities ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The president and his aides have used tariff threats, promised expedited federal drug reviews and other leverage in negotiations with drug-company executives, while also pressing foreign leaders to raise their own countries’ drug prices to help absorb global research and development costs.

As part of the initiative, pharmaceutical companies have agreed to list their drugs on TrumpRx.gov, which officials say will connect shoppers to discounts offered by the companies and help them purchase medications without using insurance. The White House has described the site as a central feature of the administration’s drug-pricing push, and the president is slated to demonstrate the site’s functionality with aides Thursday evening in an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Trump has portrayed the effort — which he has branded as “Most Favored Nation” — as one of his signature policy accomplishments, often appearing alongside pharmaceutical executives to showcase price concessions his administration secured. Trump has also called on Congress to codify the program, including it as a key plank in his “Great Healthcare Plan” proposal released in January.

“This is the biggest thing ever to happen on drug prices … it’s going to reduce the cost of healthcare because healthcare is probably 50 percent drugs, right?” Trump said at a political rally in North Carolina in December. “This achievement alone should win us the midterms.”

Spending on prescription drugs, which has accounted for about 9 percent of U.S. healthcare spending in recent years, has continued to rise despite pledges from Democratic and Republican presidents to bring it down. Trump has said that his first-term announcement that drug prices briefly inched down ranks among his proudest moments as president.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Thursday’s planned event. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X that Trump would be joined by Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services, and Joe Gebbia, director of the National Design Studio, a new administration initiative to improve government websites.

The launch of TrumpRx.gov comes more than 12 years after the debut of Healthcare.gov, a signature initiative of President Barack Obama and Democrats designed to help Americans shop for health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act. That website’s launch was memorably rocky — only six people successfully signed up for health plans on the website’s first day, according to internal Obama administration notes obtained by congressional Republicans. That failure became a political liability for the Obama administration.

Trump has sought to avoid a similar fate with his site, which is a much smaller undertaking, and to ensure the initiative delivers visible political payoff. The president and drug company leaders have previewed the site by focusing on savings for popular drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, which often carries a list price of $1,000 per month and is commonly used for weight-loss. Ozempic’s list price would drop to $350 when purchased through the new website, officials have said.

“TrumpRx doesn’t sell medications,” according to a description on the website. “Instead, it connects patients directly with the best prices, increasing transparency and cutting out costly third-party markups.”

Some Democrats and health policy experts have acknowledged that Trump’s new initiative could lower drug prices for some Americans and expand access to medications. But many have said that the public pledges remain too vague to gauge the program’s full impact, and some experts have warned that the program is likely to be constrained by the courts. They also have noted that TrumpRx’s focus on cutting “list prices” for drugs may obscure that many Americans already can obtain discounts and rebates that lower the cost of their medication. Novo Nordisk, for example, already offers Ozempic available at significant discounts through its own website.

The website “could have some impact, but it is far from revolutionary,” Craig Garthwaite, director of healthcare at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, wrote in an email. He added that the program sidesteps bigger challenges in America’s health system. “For most brand name medications, patients simply can’t afford to pay cash out of pocket. That is what insurance is for!”

Others, including former federal officials, have questioned the legality of the expedited Food and Drug Administration reviews that have been promised to some participating drug companies, warning that rushing those reviews could be illegal and dangerous.

Congressional Democrats also have demanded answers from pharmaceutical companies on the terms of their participation, their future pricing predictions and their work to help set up TrumpRx.gov.

“The Administration has yet to provide any public information that the announcements will result in any real savings for consumers,” Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and three other top Democrats on congressional committees that oversee parts of the U.S. health system said in a joint statement in December. “In fact, economists have questioned whether consumers will see any meaningful benefits. The public deserves answers on this and a better understanding of what this means for their everyday costs.”

Two-thirds of Americans say that they worry about paying for healthcare, including the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, according to a KFF poll released last Thursday. healthcare costs also represented Americans’ top financial worry, surpassing utilities, food, and rent or mortgage.

Most Americans (55 percent) also said that their healthcare costs had increased in the past year, KFF found. A similar percentage (56 percent) say that they expect healthcare to become less affordable in the future.

While Democrats generally have the edge on healthcare issues, holding a 16-percentage-point edge on which party that Americans trust to address the Affordable Care Act (42-26), the advantage is narrower on drug costs — an issue that Trump has relentlessly campaigned on — with Democrats holding a five-point edge on Republicans (35-30).

White House officials said in December that the National Design Studio had taken the lead on setting up TrumpRx.gov.

“The site has come together at record time. There’s been extensive testing by many people, and there will continue to be so that [when] we launch the site. It’s ready to go and ready for prime time,” a senior administration official told reporters on a press call, speaking on condition of anonymity to preview a forthcoming announcement.

Mark Cuban, a founder of Cost Plus Drugs, a website that offers similar services to TrumpRx.gov, said he welcomed the new site.

“I don’t think it solves the ultimate problem of how the system is designed, but I think it’s something that we obviously agree on,” Cuban, a frequent Trump critic, said at a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing in October.