President Trump has worked to lower drug prices, as part of his administration's push to make affordability great again. Last month, he announced the "biggest thing to ever happen on healthcare" after brokering a deal with 14 of the world's 17 largest pharmaceutical companies. Trump also got nine major pharmaceutical manufacturers to "lower prescription drug prices for Americans in line with the lowest prices paid by other developed nations (known as the most-favored-nation, or MFN, price)," according to a White House statement.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the agreement was "the best achievement that could happen to our country" and noted America was "paying for all of the innovation in this country and the rest of the world was free riding on it." That much is true — nations with socialized medicine don't have the capital or motivation to research and create new medications or improve current ones.
But despite Trump's efforts to lower costs for Americans, U.S. drug makers are still raising prices on hundreds of brand-name drugs while seemingly trying to undermine the system that lowers drug costs for consumers.
According to Reuters, drug companies plan list-price increases on about 350 name-brand medications in 2026. The median price hike is four percent.
Here's more:
Drugmakers plan to raise U.S. prices on at least 350 branded medications including vaccines against COVID, RSV and shingles and blockbuster cancer treatment Ibrance, even as the Trump administration pressures them for cuts, according to data provided exclusively by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors.
The number of price increases for 2026 is up from the same point last year, when drugmakers unveiled plans for raises on more than 250 drugs. The median of this year's price hikes is around 4% - in line with 2025.
The increases do not reflect any rebates to pharmacy benefit managers and other discounts.
Reuters notes that American patients pay more for prescription drugs than people in other countries, often "often nearly three times more than in other developed nations," despite efforts by President Trump to lower those costs.
Drug manufacturers like Pfizer say the price increases are "below the overall rate of inflation," telling Reuters, "The modest increase is necessary to support investments that allow us to continue to discover and deliver new medicines as well as address increased costs throughout our business."
But some drug hikes are huge outliers, with Demerol (an opioid pain medication) going up 289 percent and Framgin (a blood thinner) going up 149 percent. Given the ongoing opioid-crisis in America, raising the price of opioid pain meds raises more than a few eyebrows. 46brooklyn.com has a drug-pricing database that shows price increases. It cannot publish wholesale acquisition costs (WACs), but can track changes in list pricing. That data is eye-opening.
At the same time, it seems Big Pharma is pushing to dismantle a no-cost drug discount program and for legislation that would effectively ban pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs). This would reduce the "safety-net" providers can use to subsidize meds for patients. PBMs can lower costs by negotiating rebates and discounts.
In Maine, the Augusta-based Maine Hospital Association, St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, the American Hospital Association and several so-called “safety-net” health systems filed a suit against changes to the federal 340B discount program, which would require providers will have to pay drug manufacturers the full market price for drugs upfront and then seek reimbursement only after the medicines are administered to patients.
For patients with chronic conditions, medication noncompliance is a major factor in health setbacks. Cost is one of the biggest drivers of medication noncompliance. According to KFF (formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation), one in seven adults reports cutting medication in half or skipping doses due to cost, while one in five says they didn't fill prescriptions due to cost. The CDC says that in 2021, almost ten percent of adults reported cost-related noncompliance, and that number jumped to 20 percent for those with disabilities. This noncompliance is linked to worsening health outcomes, with higher mortality rates for patients with illnesses like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension. This noncompliance is also linked to increased hospital admissions, with 33 to 69 percent of medication-related hospital admissions tied to poor adherence, and that ten percent of all hospital admissions are related to medication non-compliance.
There are real-world costs of increased drug prices beyond the pharmacy checkout.
Even as the Trump administration puts public pressure on drug manufacturers to lower costs, pharmaceutical companies are moving ahead with price hikes on hundreds of brand-name medications in 2026. These increases, critics argue, show why patients continue to feel the financial squeeze at the pharmacy. Meanwhile, there's a policy fight brewing over safety-net programs and PBMs, which may further reduce avenues to keep drug prices affordable for more Americans.