President Donald Trump announced the official launch of his TrumpRx online pharmaceutical drug market during a press event in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
The site, which goes live tonight, is a direct-to-consumer, government-operated market allowing Americans to purchase prescription drugs at discounted prices, according to the president.
“This is a big deal, this is a very big deal, people are gonna save a lot of money and be healthy,” Trump said.
The president confirmed that all Americans will be able to purchase “dozens” of the “most commonly used prescription drugs” through the portal.
Trump said specifically that popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs will be included, noting that Ozempic “will come down from $1,000 to $199. “
“Novo Nordisk will be slashing the price, as an example of Ozempic, from more than $1,000 to to $199,” he said.
He also said that the price of Wegovy, another GLP-1, will drop from $1,300 to $199.
Thursday’s announcement comes after months of hype from Trump and top administration officials who have made the planned TrumpRx website a central plank in their pitch to voters who remain skeptical of the president’s work to tackle the cost-of-living problems that led voters to return him to the White House despite multiple criminal indictments — and convictions on more than 30 felonies in his former home state of New York.
Trump and other administration figures have teased the TrumpRx website for months as he has hosted various pharmaceutical industry leaders in the Oval Office to announce pricing agreements under which their respective companies would offer American customers the same prices for their prescriptions that are paid in foreign countries and make investments in American manufacturing facilities.
Trump’s “most favored nation” pricing model is aimed at making medications more affordable for low-income Americans, including those on Medicaid, by connecting consumers directly with manufacturers who will charge prices equivalent to those paid by patients in countries with single-payer health care systems.
The president first pushed the idea of forcing drug companies to match prices offered abroad during his previous term but faced significant resistance from the industry, including pushback in a lawsuit that resulted in a federal court order blocking his administration from carrying the plan out because it had failed to follow proper regulatory procedures.
After returning to the White House, he revived the plan in an executive order he issued in May which directed his administration to take various actions to bring drug prices in the U.S. in line with prices negotiated between pharmaceutical companies and foreign countries that have single-payer health systems such as the British NHS.
Last July, he sent letters to leading drug companies demanding that they bring down prices offered to Americans to match the negotiated prices available in foreign countries.
The president has often complained that Americans “pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory” and accused pharmaceutical companies of “effectively subsidizing socialism abroad with skyrocketing prices at home.”
In the eight months since, 14 major drug companies gave in to his demand by striking agreements to offer “most-favored nation” prices to Americans and participate in the TrumpRx website.
But the purportedly lower prices offered by the website may not make much difference to voters who are reeling from skyrocketing insurance premiums in the wake of his administration’s decision not to support extending Covid-era tax credits that lowered the cost of health plans purchased on Affordable Care Act exchanges.
In January, Trump unveiled an alternative plan that would institute direct payments as a substitute for the direct federal subsidies that expired at the end of last year.
Millions of Americans were left facing massive rate increases for their plans in 2026 as Congress left in December without finding a legislative path to extend the premium tax credits.
The White House plan also calls for a crackdown on pharmacy benefit managers and broadening the scope of medicines that can be purchased over-the-counter, which the administration hopes will cut down on doctor’s appointments. It also asks Congress to codify the “most-favored nation” status the White House has used to secure trade agreements aimed at lowering drug prices.
The TrumpRx website rollout also comes as the White House is facing headwinds on affordability matters with just nine months remaining until voters decide whether to extend the Republican Party’s unified control of Washington.
The expiration of ACA subsidies in December caused surging premium costs for many health plans on the public exchanges, and early data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid indicate that 1.5 million fewer Americans are subscribed to health plans on the Affordable Care Act exchanges as of the latest open enrollment period, when those price increases first started showing up.
The timing couldn’t be worse for Republicans, who are wading into an election year where they are defending twin majorities in the House and Senate while “affordability” remains the issue at the top of mind for most Americans. Persistently high consumer prices, energy costs and housing prices continue to dog the president as he touts his economic record over that of his predecessor, Joe Biden.
