60-day countdown, Trump threatens to use "all tools" to force drug companies to lower prices, pharmaceutical stocks plummet over 4%

U.S. President Trump has issued an ultimatum to 17 pharmaceutical companies, demanding that they take measures to significantly reduce drug prices in the United States within 60 days.

On Thursday, Trump announced on social media the letters sent to 17 major pharmaceutical companies. These companies include industry giants such as Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Regeneron, Merck, and Novo Nordisk.

In the letter, he threatened that if these companies fail to comply with his price reduction demands by September 29, he would "use all the tools in our arsenal to protect American families from the ongoing abuse of drug pricing."

This news immediately triggered a sell-off in the pharmaceutical sector. Shares of GlaxoSmithKline and Merck fell more than 4%, while shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Novo Nordisk dropped over 5%, and Sanofi's shares plummeted more than 7%.

In May of this year, Trump signed an executive order reinstating a controversial "most favored nation" policy. This policy aims to achieve price reductions by linking the prices of certain drugs in the U.S. to significantly lower prices abroad.

"Most Favored Nation" Pricing and Ultimatum

Trump made it clear in the letter that he would no longer accept the solutions previously proposed by the pharmaceutical industry.

He criticized these proposals as "merely shifting blame and calling for policy adjustments that would bring billions of dollars in benefits to the industry." He stated:

In the future, only those solutions that provide immediate relief to American families and end the free-riding behavior of Europe and other developed countries on American innovation will be accepted.

Trump outlined the specific steps he demands companies take:

• Full implementation of "most favored nation" pricing: Requiring pharmaceutical companies to provide their entire drug portfolio to every Medicaid patient at the lowest price they offer in other developed countries (i.e., "most favored nation" pricing).
• Locking in new drug prices: Requiring companies to contract with the U.S. government to guarantee that Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial payers will receive "most favored nation" pricing for all new drugs at launch and in the future.
• Pressuring overseas markets: Calling on companies to negotiate more aggressively with what he refers to as "foreign free-rider countries," stating that U.S. trade policy will support this effort. He emphasized that increased revenue from abroad must be "repatriated through agreements with the U.S. to lower drug prices for American patients and taxpayers."
• Bypassing intermediaries: Requiring pharmaceutical companies to adopt a model of selling drugs directly to consumers or businesses, aiming to effectively eliminate intermediaries and ensure that all Americans can access the same "most favored nation" pricing offered to third-party payers.

According to reports, AstraZeneca has indicated that it has proposed lowering some of its drug prices in the U.S. and stated that the Trump administration is considering these proposals. AstraZeneca also added that the company is considering selling some drugs directly to patients.

Faced with the challenge of high drug costs for American patients, companies such as Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, and Bristol-Myers Squibb have already adopted a direct-to-consumer sales model