FACT FOCUS: Trump says he’s reduce drug costs by as much as 1,500%. That’s not doable

By MELISSA GOLDIN

Days after he despatched letters instructing prime pharmaceutical producers to make use of a “most favored nation” pricing mannequin for prescribed drugs, President Donald Trump advised reporters on Sunday that he had reduce prices by as much as 1,500%.

However Trump’s grandiose declare is mathematically inconceivable.

Right here’s a better take a look at the information.

TRUMP: “You know, we’ve cut drug prices by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500%. I don’t mean 50%, I mean 14 — 1,500%.”

THE FACTS: That is false. Reducing drug costs by greater than 100% would theoretically imply that individuals are being paid to take drugs. The Trump administration has taken steps to decrease prescription drug costs, however specialists say there’s no indication prices have seen such a large drop.

Geoffrey Joyce, director of well being coverage on the College of Southern California’s Schaeffer Middle, referred to as Trump’s declare “total fiction” made up by the Republican president. He agreed that it might quantity to drug corporations paying clients, relatively than the opposite manner round.

“I find it really difficult to translate those numbers into some actual estimates that patients would see at the pharmacy counter,” stated Mariana Socal, an affiliate professor of well being coverage and administration at Johns Hopkins College who research the U.S. pharmaceutical market. She added that Trump’s math is “really hard to follow.”

Requested what Trump was utilizing to again up his declare, White Home spokesman Kush Desai stated: “It’s an objective fact that Americans are paying exponentially more for the same exact drugs as people in other developed countries pay, and it’s an objective fact that no other Administration has done more to rectify this unfair burden for the American people.”

The White Home supplied a chart of worth differentials for medicine within the U.S. and comparable international locations, however didn’t provide some other proof. On Sunday, Trump additionally described cuts to drug costs as a future improvement, not that already occurred.

“So we’ll be dropping drug prices,” he stated. “It will start over the next two to three months by 1,200, 1,300 and even 1,400%.”

Costs for many prescribed drugs — unbranded generics are the exception — are greater within the U.S. than they’re in different high-income international locations. That is largely because of the manner drug costs are negotiated in the US.

Trump made his current attraction in letters to 17 pharmaceutical producers, the White Home introduced final week. He requested them to scale back prices within the U.S. by matching the bottom costs of prescriptions medicine in different comparably developed international locations. Some drugmakers have since indicated that they’re open to slicing prices.

This transfer follows an govt order Trump signed in Might setting a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to electively decrease costs within the U.S. or face new limits sooner or later over what the federal government pays.

The federal authorities has essentially the most energy to form the value it pays for medicine coated by Medicare and Medicaid. It’s unclear what — if any — influence the Trump administration’s efforts can have on tens of millions of People who’ve non-public medical insurance.

Socal identified that if drug producers had reduce prices to the extent Trump claims, they might be shouting it from the rooftops, particularly given the warmth they’ve taken through the years for his or her pricing practices.

“My expectation would be that they would make announcements — public announcements — and that those announcements would come way in advance of the actual effective dates when those price cuts would come into effect,” she stated.

Joyce agreed that there was no indication of a considerable reduce.

“Not at all, not at all, none whatsoever,” he stated. “And let alone 1,500.”

Initially Printed: August 4, 2025 at 3:00 PM PDT