‘People are going to save money, be healthy’: All about US President’s TrumpRx website

US President Donald Trump said, "People are going to save a lot of money and be healthy," as he launched a website meant to offer access to customers to discounted prescription medicines in the US. Powered by drug savings site GoodRx, Trump’s discounted medicine website is called TrumpRx. 

He announced that the new website was live during a White House event along with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr Mehmet Oz and National Design Studio Director and Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia.

WHAT MEDICINES WILL BE AVAILABLE ON TRUMPRX

Sixteen of the largest global drugmakers have struck "most-favoured nation" deals with the Trump administration to cut drug prices for Americans in exchange for exemptions from US tariffs. Under those agreements they will lower prices for the government's Medicaid program and, via TrumpRx, to cash-paying consumers. 

Participating companies include Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck, GSK, Eli Lilly, and Novo Nordisk. Pfizer said it had launched its TrumpRx programme on Thursday, adding that it would provide over 30 medicines at discounted prices. The White House said other discounts include fertility medicines such as EMD Serono's Gonal-F and Merck's Cetrotide.

TrumpRx will not sell drugs directly but will send patients to other sites to buy the medicines. Medicines available will include Merck's diabetes drug Januvia, Sanofi’s blood thinner Plavix, GSK's asthma inhaler Advair Diskus 500/50, Amgen's cholesterol medication Repatha, and Gilead's hepatitis C treatment Epclusa.

The deals also include agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to slash prices of popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. The government has said these would reduce prices to between $149 and $350 a month on average for Americans. Novo and Lilly currently sell their weight-loss drugs directly to consumers, accounting for over 10 per cent of total sales.

Novo's Wegovy pill, launched early last month, is currently being sold exclusively in direct-to-consumer channels as it waits on insurers to set coverage terms. "We're continuing to make it easier for people to access our authentic, FDA-approved medicines by expanding availability through multiple, convenient options," said Chris Pernie, Novo's associate vice president for US public affairs.

"The launch of TrumpRx will further extend patients' reach to Ozempic and Wegovy, including the newly approved Wegovy pill, at our self-pay prices," Pernie said in a statement. The expansion of cash-pay models is expected to give patients more direct access to branded drugs.