President Trump on Friday announced new agreements with nine pharmaceutical manufacturers aimed at reducing certain prescription drug prices.

"Starting next year, American drug prices will come down fast and furious and will soon be the lowest in the developed world," Mr. Trump said Friday at the White House.

Under the deal, the nine manufacturers will offer their drugs to Medicaid recipients at most-favored-nation discounts, a policy that requires the prices to match those paid by patients in other developed nations. The nine companies will also offer medicines "at a deep discount off the list price" to Americans through TrumpRx, according to the White House. The Trump administration plans to offer tariff exemptions to the drugmakers for three years in exchange for the MFN pricing commitments.

According to a White House fact sheet, the drugs that will be covered include treatments for chronic conditions, including type two diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hepatitis B and C, human immunodeficiency virus and certain cancers.

Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead Science, GSK, Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi will sell drugs on TrumpRx, the administration's discount drug pricing program. TrumpRx — which the administration has said will launch early next year — will not sell drugs directly, but instead will direct consumers to lower prices elsewhere.

Senior administration officials said that roughly 30-40% of Medicaid drug prices are currently higher than what patients in other wealthy nations pay, mostly Europeans, and that the prices of those drugs will drop.

The president has previously announced agreements with AstraZeneca, EMD Serono, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer. The White House said it has made MFN deals with 14 of the 17 biggest drug manufacturers in the world. The three drugmakers that were not part of the announcement are AbbVie, Johnson & Johnson and Regeneron, but the president said that deals involving the remaining three could be announced at another time.

"[The policy] affects every American so that they have the dignity to access the same medical innovations that our tax dollars helped develop," a White House official said. "This is about healthcare fairness."

But questions remain about how the president's deals with drugmakers will work — and who will feel the difference at the pharmacy counter. Most-favored-nation pricing could have a muted impact on Medicaid patients, experts say, because the program already has a statutory "best price" protection that guarantees the lowest price offered to any U.S. commercial payer. Also, while it could save states money, Medicaid users typically don't pay out-of-pocket for their medication.

Medicaid recipients are "starting out at prices well below the averages seen in the U.S. market," Darius Lakdawalla, chief scientific officer at the University of Southern California's Schaeffer Center, pointed out to CBS News after the president announced the Pfizer deal.

The White House said the new agreement represents more than $150 billion in new investment commitments in manufacturing and research and development in the U.S.

In addition to the drugmakers' commitment to MFN and TrumpRx, several drugmakers' will be donating active pharmaceutical ingredients to the Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve, an initiative designed to stockpile critical raw materials and drug components in order to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign drug manufacturing during disruptions like pandemics.

"This is the president's answer to pharmaceutical vulnerability, such that when the disaster strikes, whether it's natural catastrophe, pandemic or a national security emergency, America will be ready," a senior administration official said.

Officials said the administration expects to see "major reductions in Medicaid prices" as it aims to match the prices of several Medicaid drugs with MFN levels.

"Medicaid has prices that are much higher than what other European nations pay," a senior administration official said. "Americans should not pay more than other developed nations."

But injectable drugs and infusion medications will not be available on TrumpRx because the White House has concluded these drugs must be administered by health care providers and should not be on a direct-to-consumer platform.

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