- TrumpRX.gov added nearly 600 generic drugs for low-cost prescriptions.
- Mark Cuban emphasized bipartisan support for lower drug prices, despite earlier opposition to Trump.
- The website lists discounted prices but may not always be cheapest for insured individuals.
President Donald Trump announced Monday that roughly 600 generic drugs will be added to the offerings on his TrumpRX.gov website, which lists medications available at discounted prices.
Trump hailed what he called “this massive catalog of low-cost generics” on the website as a way to ensure consumers have “one source to ensure that they’re getting the lowest possible cost on their prescriptions.”
The announcement came Monday at a news conference in Washington, D.C., where the president was flanked by corporate leaders from Amazon Pharmacy, Cost Plus Drugs and GoodRX. As The Washington Post explained, all three said that “they would integrate their own companies’ services to sell prescription drugs with TrumpRX.gov.”
For some, the biggest surprise wasn’t the significant increase in the number of medications listed — previously there were about 75 — but the presence of billionaire Mark Cuban alongside Trump during the announcement. In the last election, Cuban endorsed Kamala Harris for president and expended a lot of effort in trying to dissuade Americans from voting for Trump.
Cuban, who cofounded Cost Plus Drugs, appeared to shrug off the issue and declined to answer political questions. Instead, he said that “Republicans want cheaper drugs, independents want cheaper drugs, Democrats want cheaper drugs, and together I think we’re going to do something special.” He added that 559 of the drugs being added to the listings on TrumpRx were through his Cost Plus Drugs.
Cuban called working with TrumpRX.gov a “special partnership.” According to Fox News, he added, “Democrats want cheaper medications, too. When all is said and done, the goal is the goal. How do we make medications and healthcare cheaper? That’s all I care about.”
What TrumpRx can do
Trump has long said he’d lower drug prices for the American people and in February the TrumpRX.gov website went online, as Deseret News previously reported.
The share of people who benefit from the site is limited as it targets those who pay out of pocket for their medications. Insurance may beat the price. But proponents of the site say people should look there first when ordering prescriptions to see if the cost is lower than insurance’s out-of-pocket price.
The website doesn’t dispense medications, but rather lists the “discounted drug prices from manufacturers that have agreed to most-favored-nation pricing.” The site notes that the drugs “can be obtained at participating pharmacies using coupon cards displayed on TrumpRx or directly through manufacturer’s websites.”
Some of the initial offerings included often-used medications manufactured by AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer, among others.
“You should not be buying drugs going forward anymore without at least checking,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services administrator, said at the initial announcement in February.
In a post on X, The White House said that “Americans went from paying the MOST anywhere in the world for medications to paying the LOWEST drug prices for anybody in any country.”
The Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns Amazon and thus TrumpRX partner Amazon Pharmacy, reported that “some health policy experts and Democrats have panned the Trump administration’s drug price deals, citing analysis that the prices available for some prescription drugs through TrumpRx.gov are higher than the prices through other discount programs or generic alternatives."
In the same Post article, others praised TrumpRX. “TrumpRx is providing more ways for patients without drug coverage to access medications, and we welcome this emphasis on generic medicines,” David Marin, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, said in a statement. The association is an umbrella group for pharmacy benefit managers, who negotiate prices between drug manufacturers and insurance companies.
KFF has noted that healthcare is among the issues that most impact and matter to American voters. Since 1992 the foundation said, healthcare has ranked among the top concerns.
The foundation reported recently that its pre-election polls show the economy is the top concern, “but recent polls also suggest that the role of healthcare costs among voters’ economic concerns appears to be on the rise compared to previous election cycles.”
