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TrumpRx finally launches. Which prescription drugs does it cover — and will it actually save you money?
After announcing TrumpRx late last year, President Trump finally unveiled the new government website on Thursday, where Americans can find discounts on brand-name prescription drugs if they pay cash rather than use health insurance.
“It’s the biggest thing to happen in health care, I think, in many, many decades,” Trump claimed at Thursday’s launch event. “You’re going to save a fortune.”
In recent weeks, the president has seen his poll numbers slide as Americans say he’s not doing enough to lower the cost of living. The administration has touted TrumpRx as a flagship breakthrough on affordability. But what does the site do? Which drugs does it cover? And will it really save you money?
Here are all your big questions about TrumpRX, answered.
Where did TrumpRx come from?
It’s no secret that, on average, Americans pay more than four times as much for brand-name drugs as their counterparts in other countries — despite the fact that American laboratories and hospitals conduct much of the research required to develop these drugs, often with the help of grants from the federal government.
In contrast to other Republicans — and against the wishes of Big Pharma — Trump has long shown interest in setting drug prices from Washington, D.C. During the 2016 campaign, he said he wanted to let Medicare negotiate prices directly with drug companies — a policy that congressional Republicans had previously prohibited. And near the end of his first term, in late 2020, Trump enacted a “most favored nation” plan designed to guarantee the U.S. the lowest price for 50 expensive drugs it purchases for Medicare beneficiaries.
A federal court quickly blocked Trump’s move, ruling that his administration had skipped steps in the policymaking process. But Trump revisited the idea after returning to office last year, issuing an executive order that didn’t legally link U.S. drug prices to prices in peer countries but, rather, threatened drug companies with regulatory action for importation of foreign drugs if they didn’t lower their prices voluntarily.
TrumpRx, which has been delayed several times for unexplained reasons, is the result of that order. The White House said in a press release that it had struck “16 deals with major pharmaceutical manufacturers to bring prices in line with those paid in other developed nations.”
As part of those negotiations, the Trump administration agreed to exempt those drugmakers from certain tariffs if they also agreed to lower prices for Medicaid and launch future drugs at “most favored nation” pricing.
Will TrumpRx save you money?
To be clear, you can’t actually buy medications at TrumpRx.gov. Instead, you can either click through to the drugmakers’ own direct-to-consumer websites to make a discounted purchase or access a coupon for a specific drug, which you can then bring to your local pharmacy.
So far, the available discounts range from 33% off Pfizer’s Xeljanz, which treats autoimmune disorders such as ulcerative colitis, to 93% off Cetrotide, a drug made by EMD Serono that’s used in fertility treatments.
Some of these are hardship discounts that aren’t available to everyone. Some match discounts that are already available through other sites, like GoodRx, a popular drug discount site that recently announced it’s serving as a “key integration partner” for companies offering discounts on TrumpRx.
But there’s another important caveat here as well: the TrumpRx discounts only apply if you’re paying cash out of your own pocket for brand-name drugs. You can’t buy generics, and you can’t use health insurance.
This limits the site’s impact in two ways.
First, 92% of Americans — about 310 million people — have health insurance through work, the individual market or government programs like Medicaid and Medicare. For brand-name drugs, co-pays are still likely to be a lot cheaper than the manufacturer’s cash prices — even if those prices are heavily discounted. As TrumpRx itself puts it in a disclaimer, “this is an out-of-pocket price. If you have insurance, check your co-pay first — it may be even lower.”
(Also worth noting: If you have private insurance, whatever you spend through TrumpRx may not count toward your deductible or annual out-of-pocket maximum.)
Second, some of the drugs on TrumpRx are already available as generics — and they tend to be available for much lower prices elsewhere. One example is Protonix, a medication for heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Right now, it’s available for $200 on TrumpRx. However, the generic version (pantoprazole) costs $30 with a coupon from GoodRx.
None of that is to say that TrumpRx won’t save some people money. Millions still lack health insurance, and many insurance plans don’t cover expensive fertility or weight loss drugs, for example. The idea is that out-of-pocket consumers can now check TrumpRx — along with GoodRx, Mark Cuban’s CostPlus Drugs, Costco.com and more — before deciding what makes the most sense for them.
Which drugs are currently available on TrumpRx?
At launch, there were 43 drugs available through TrumpRx, including weight loss meds such as Ozempic and Wegovy. In comparison, there are more than 6,000 drugs available through GoodRx. So far, all of the drugs available through TrumpRx come from five of the pharmaceutical companies that struck deals with the Trump administration: AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer. The White House said that 11 additional companies will offer discounts on their drugs via TrumpRx in the coming months.
Here’s what’s available right now: