President Donald Trump’s high-profile campaign to lower prescription drug prices has produced a patchwork of modest savings and continued increases, with analysts warning that the administration’s signature initiatives benefit only a narrow slice of American consumers, according to a KFF Health News investigation published Wednesday.
Since beginning his second term, Trump has pursued a string of headline-grabbing moves — private White House meetings with pharmaceutical executives, “most favored nation” pricing agreements for Medicaid, and the February launch of TrumpRx.gov, a government-backed discount portal for cash-paying patients. The administration has also promised to accelerate approvals of biosimilar drugs by cutting FDA red tape.
Yet the results on the ground tell a more complicated story. According to data from 46brooklyn, a consulting firm that tracks brand-name drug prices, close to 1,000 branded drugs went up in price in January 2026 alone, following a year that saw the highest number of list price increases on record. In the first week of 2026, Pfizer raised the list prices of 71 drugs by an average of 5%, while lowering the price of just one.
Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School whose research focuses on drug pricing, was dismissive of the administration’s deals with pharmaceutical companies. “One-off agreements made for publicity purposes,” he said. “They don’t change anything about the way drugs are priced…the agreements are opaque and unenforceable.”
The TrumpRx portal, which launched Feb. 6, consists largely of discounts on Pfizer drugs that compete directly with cheaper generics already on the market. Critics note that many of the touted savings are illusory. For example, a cholesterol drug listed on TrumpRx at $127.91 — advertised as 50% off — is available in generic form for around $17 through Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs platform. Most TrumpRx discounts are accessible only to uninsured patients paying cash.
There are some meaningful wins for patients, though largely inherited from the Biden administration. Medicare drug price negotiations on an initial ten high-cost drugs — including blood thinners, insulins, and treatments for inflammatory conditions — took effect January 1, with price reductions exceeding 50% on some products. The resulting estimated $6 billion in annual savings helped cap Medicare patients’ out-of-pocket drug spending at $2,000 annually. A further 15 drugs were negotiated in 2025, with 15 more set for negotiation this year, potentially saving Medicare over $20 billion annually across all 40 drugs.
Drug industry lobbyists have moved to limit these gains, with some success. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act exempts drugs for rare diseases from the negotiation process.
For the average American without Medicare, meaningful savings remain elusive. A KFF poll found that approximately 60% of U.S. adults worry about affording prescription drugs, with more than 80% describing prices as unreasonable. Americans pay roughly three times what patients in comparable countries pay for the same medications.