The meeting, which will include Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla as the newly named board of directors’ chair, will reportedly cover key topics for the lobbying group, including the Inflation Reduction Act.
Leaders from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America will meet with President Trump on Thursday, and the drug industry’s largest lobbying group stacked the deck prior to the event.
The purported fireside chat is an effort to work with the returning president on policies affecting drugmakers, according to Bloomberg, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is hoping to undo some of the policies put in place during the Biden era.
In its 2025 policy document, PhRMA identified pushing back on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which allows the government to negotiate prices for medicines covered by Medicare, as one of its top priorities. The organization’s main criticisms include the contention that IRA involves price setting, not negotiating, and threatens patient access due to increasing restrictions and out-of-pocket costs, while offering fewer choices covered by Medicare Part D.
PhRMA’s policy document homed in on the IRA’s “pill penalty,” which provides only nine years of post-approval protection from price negotiations for small molecule medicines, compared to the 13 years enjoyed by large molecules. According to the group, this penalty could lead to 188 fewer small molecule advances over the next 20 years.
Ahead of the meeting, PhRMA brought in some heavy hitters familiar with President Trump and his policies. Wednesday. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla was announced as the new chair of the group’s board of directors, with Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson tapped as board chair-elect and Merck chief executive Robert Davis as treasurer.
In Pfizer’s fourth quarter 2024 earnings call, Bourla expressed confidence that his previous working relationship with Trump would serve him well during the president’s second term.
“I have a very long-lasting relationship with the President that was cemented during Operation Warp Speed when we developed the vaccine for COVID, and I know that the President is very proud of what he was able to accomplish,” Bourla said on the call.
The gathering Thursday will also include PhRMA head Stephen Ubl, along with “CEOs of several major drugmakers,” Bloomberg reported.
The lobbying group has spoken in favor of the President’s changes so far, calling Trump “disrupter-in-chief” and RFK Jr. “a bold new health secretary” at a previous event this week, and saying both were committed to breaking the status quo.
In a note to investors Saturday, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said he expects to “see positive commentary coming out of a White House meeting.”
“We would expect President Trump to talk about good deal making and working with these pharma companies to keep prices down to ensure that patients get access to the drug,” Yee wrote. “Deal making would be a positive coming out of that.”
Meanwhile, new FTC chairman Andrew Ferguson told staff this week that, despite expectations of dealmaking leniency, he plans to maintain stricter anti-trust scrutiny on deals.
