A week after dining with Trump and his team at Mar-a-Lago, leaders at Pfizer and Eli Lilly have publicly stated that they intend to collaborate with the incoming administration on key issues affecting the pharma industry.
In separate interviews on Tuesday, top executives at Eli Lilly and Pfizer expressed their openness to working with the incoming Trump administration on key issues affecting the pharma industry.
These statements come after pharma chiefs sat down with President-elect Donald Trump for dinner last week at his Mar-a-Lago residence—alongside a representative from the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America—as reported by Axios. Trump’s incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles was also at the dinner, though it remains unclear what exactly was discussed.
In a Tuesday interview with Fierce Pharma at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., Lilly CEO David Ricks said that raising drug prices in other developed countries is key to lowering costs in the U.S., and that this is likely to be one of the levers that Trump’s incoming healthcare team will be moving.
However, in an investor note citing the Fierce article, Leerink Partners analysts questioned how possible such a move might be, pointing out that “it will be difficult to raise ex-US prices.”
“Ex-US governments control drug prices on a country-by-country basis via negotiations on individual drugs,” the analysts wrote, adding that “since their health systems are government-run, they also pay much lower prices for healthcare in general.” These are some of the reasons why, they said, “We don’t see a simple way to force other countries to pay higher prices for drugs given disparate health technology assessment entities and pricing constructs.”
Drug pricing has been a flashpoint for the industry and the government, particularly in the years since outgoing President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in 2022. The centerpiece of the Act is the drug price negotiation program, which allows the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to renegotiate the prices for some of the most widely prescribed drugs—with their new costs set to begin taking effect in 2026.
In August 2024, the CMS released the final agreed-upon maximum fair prices for the first 10 drugs to come under this program. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris touted the negotiations as a big win for their administration—and the American people—projected to generate around $6 billion in Medicare savings in 2026.
Analysts have been largely skeptical, however, particularly as many of the drugs had been selling far below their list prices even before the negotiations kicked off.
Ricks added in the Fierce interview that the industry is also looking forward to seeing how the Trump administration will change or influence “the regulatory situation,” which he said has shifted “in a negative way” for pharma under Biden.
Meanwhile, in an interview with Reuters, Pfizer Chief Sustainability Officer Caroline Roan said that the pharma will work with the incoming Trump administration on matters regarding the climate emergency and drug accessibility. “We’re going to roll up our sleeves and we’re going to find common ground. And I believe that’s possible.”
Despite increasing polarization around climate and vaccine science, Pfizer will continue to advance innovative products to ensure patients will have access to effective therapeutic and immunization options, Roan added.
Also on Tuesday, Trump announced that he will nominate Andrew Ferguson as the chair of the Federal Trade Commission under his administration, an appointment that according to the Associated Press could be good for dealmaking in the pharma industry.
