Trump’s secretive pharma deals may undermine ‘most-favored nation’ pricing, an analysis suggests The projected savings may be reduced by as much as 80%

https://www.statnews.com/2026/09/13/trump-secretive-pharma-deals-undermine-most-favored-nation-pricing/?utm_campaign=the_readout&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8enpNwWiA9SMsuHayTEpFKB5dgEObPOqrpiomgHYm2Mio60RBWp3Sw2q8r36lw0vKYu-PFN9myZsUH4GYfuYEdoWkNxA&_hsmi=438904019&utm_content=438904019&utm_source=hs_email By Ed SilvermanSept. 13, 2026 Pharmalot Columnist, Senior Writer Drugmaker deals could gut Medicare drug savings Secretive deals between the Trump administration and 26 drugmakers could cut projected savings from its Medicare drug pricing pilots by as much as 80%, a new Lancet study shows. The administration’s GLOBE and GUARD programs would link Medicare payments to lower drug prices in 19 other wealthy countries, STAT’s Ed Silverman writes. But separate agreements with pharmaceutical companies could exempt many medicines from these reductions. Researchers estimated the programs could otherwise save Medicare $11.6 billion, but said the exemptions to drugmakers could dramatically erode any gains. “The administration deserves credit because it designed a pathway to deliver MFN pricing, but the implementation will be totally confounded by these side deals around which we have zero transparency,” said Thomas Hwang, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.