WASHINGTON – President Trump hailed his signature drug discount platform TrumpRx as “one of the most innovative health care initiatives in history.”
But a month after launch, few drugs are available, data on how much the site is being used remains unclear, and the private deals underlying TrumpRx are still under review.
TrumpRx claims to offer the lowest prices. However, many drugs have cheaper generic versions.
Drug market experts and patient advocates say the platform’s early reality stands in sharp contrast to the soaring expectations set by a president who envisioned unprecedented reductions in the amount people pay for drugs. The administration is moving ahead with efforts to lower drug prices as a key part of its midterm election argument to make health care more affordable, despite cuts across the U.S. health care system, including historic cuts to Medicaid spending.
“Some people will benefit, some people won’t,” Michelle Long, KFF’s senior policy manager for patient and consumer protection programs, said of TrumpRx. “Is that the greatest thing in medicine? Obviously no.”
In response to questions from STAT, administration officials did not provide details such as how many new drugs would be added, when the additions would occur, or how many people used the site.
But they continued to promote it. “President Trump is getting results,” Assistant Secretary of Health Brian Christine posted on social media Tuesday with a link to the site.
How many drugs will be added to TrumpRx and when?
Concerns about whether the program would be able to deliver on its big promises emerged soon after its launch. Almost half of the 43 drugs listed on TrumpRx are already available cheaper as generic drugs, the STAT analysis found. Additionally, spending on TrumpRx is generally not eligible for insurance deductibility.
Joe Gebbia, the US chief design officer who helped build the site, said at the launch that the administration would be adding “more and more drugs every week.” One month later, the site houses 44 prescription drugs, a small fraction of the 24,000 prescription drugs approved by federal regulators.
And the White House’s agreement with drug companies is still in its final stages, months after the Oval Office announcement celebrating the deal, according to company financial disclosures.
TrumpRx’s impact on U.S. patients is limited because the number of drugs is relatively limited.
“These are just a few of the prescription drugs available at TrumpRx,” Long said. “I think the cost burden, if any, will be very small.”
STAT Plus: White House seeks further drug pricing agreements to add to TrumpRx
Companies contracted by the administration are working with administration officials to add more medicines to the site, people familiar with the matter said, but the timeline is unclear.
When the site launches, a White House fact sheet says the drugs will initially include drugs made by the first five companies that have signed contracts with the administration: AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer. More will be added “in the coming months.”
For example, a Genentech spokesperson said in a statement that the company “continues to work with the U.S. government to list our influenza portfolio on TrumpRX.” A spokesperson for Boehringer Ingelheim also said the company “looks forward to the launch of Boehringer products soon.”
Of the companies that list medicines on their sites, it appears that fewer medicines are offered than expected. For example, Pfizer was expected to offer “virtually all” of its drugs at discounted prices on the platform, according to a White House chart released when the Pfizer deal was announced.
Thirty of the hundreds of Pfizer drugs sold in the U.S. are currently available on TrumpRx, but the company did not respond to questions about plans to add more.
“We currently list the majority of our primary care treatments, as well as some select specialty brands, at average savings of 50% and up to 85%,” a Pfizer spokesperson said in a statement. “We will regularly evaluate and make adjustments as the program evolves.”
Other companies announcing deals with the White House either did not respond to requests for comment or declined to say when or if they would add more drugs to their websites.
TrumpRx offers deep discounts on fertility drugs
Still, the Trump administration has sought to highlight instances where discounts have made a measurable difference. Last month, the president invited the first patients who purchased the drug through the website to attend the State of the Union address.
The person obtained IVF drugs through the site. Long said lower cash prices for these drugs are likely to help patients because many patients pay without insurance coverage and there are no generic alternatives for these drugs.
President Trump touts drug cost reductions and anti-fraud measures in long State of the Union address
“I have taken prescription drugs, which are a huge part of health care, from the highest prices to the lowest prices in the entire world,” Trump said in a speech to Congress. “That’s a huge accomplishment.”
Long said TrumpRx’s inclusion of other drugs that have high cash prices and are not covered by insurance could have a noticeable impact on some people, such as drugs to treat cancer and HIV.
However, the full impact of this program is still unknown. Just under a quarter of respondents to a YouGov poll last month said they were somewhat or very likely to use the site. The appearance of Trump’s name in the poll diminished Democratic interest, but increased Republicans’ desire to use the site.
Government officials have not yet released data on the number of people using the platform, despite promises to do so.
How many people are using TrumpRx?
On February 17, Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, touted the site’s “millions of users, billions of searches, and hundreds of thousands of prescription coupons already distributed” and said the administration would release specific numbers “within the next week.”
CMS and White House officials did not respond to requests for comment about the program’s future or how many people have used it so far.
The site’s online reach is another sign that its impact is limited. Software that provides web traffic estimates are notorious for widely varying results, but there is a clear trend toward waning interest.
Samerweb estimates TrumpRx has 439,000 monthly visitors, while Semrush puts the number at 178,000. Glimpse, which measures Google’s search interest, reports 1.3 million searches for TrumpRx in the past 30 days, with a peak of 569,000 on February 6, shortly after TrumpRx launched. Over the past few weeks, searches have been around 11,000 per day.
Still, other drug companies are also trying to reach deals with the administration for the possibility of having their products listed on TrumpRx, according to two people familiar with the effort. White House officials have also expressed positive attitudes toward a new agreement.
STAT Plus: Will the White House’s agreement with drug companies on GLP-1 drugs be a game changer?
Kennedy last week touted the program as helping lower prices for patients who pay with both insurance and cash, but an HHS spokesperson doubled down on that claim, saying the new price transparency would have an impact across the market. Neither has shown evidence that out-of-pocket costs have decreased, and Long said he doesn’t know what will happen unless the drugs are covered by insurance.
“For some patients in our community, the price of TrumpRx is equal to or higher than what they currently pay through insurance,” said Merris Basie, executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs, in a statement to STAT. “While continued efforts to lower prescription drug prices are encouraged, the design of this program does not address the root cause of high drug prices in the United States: the pharmaceutical industry’s monopolistic pricing strategy that prioritizes profits over patients.”
President Trump has called on Congress to do more to lower drug prices, but it’s unclear whether Republicans support his approach of linking U.S. drug prices to what European countries pay.
Several lobbyists representing drug companies said they do not see an imminent threat that lawmakers will pass these price controls, even though their clients are concerned about even a slim chance of them becoming law. Still, Republicans hoping to keep their seats in Congress have promoted President Trump’s health policies as meaningful changes in an area that has been very resistant to them.
At the same time, Democrats have pounced on what they claim is a failure of TrumpRx. Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee released a report last month titled “Trump Rx: Big Talk, Little Savings,” while Senate Democrats asked the Office of the Inspector General for Health Services to review the site, citing concerns about “inappropriate prescribing, conflicts of interest, and inadequate care.”
However, the Trump administration shows no signs of backing down. The banner at the top of TrumpRx says, “We’re just getting started.”
Gary Marshall contributed reporting.
