US President Donald Trump on Friday announced a deal with AstraZeneca PLC that he said would lead to significantly lower domestic drug prices in exchange for granting the pharmaceutical giant tariff relief.
The agreement, which follows a similar accord announced last month with US giant Pfizer Inc, requires AstraZeneca to charge “most-favored nation” pricing — matching the lowest price offered in other wealthy nations — to Medicaid, the US health insurance program for low-income Americans.
Officials also said the British drugmaker had agreed to participate in a Web site called TrumpRx that would allow direct purchasing at reduced prices.
Photo: Bloomberg
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said the drugmaker would also provide “massively” discounted drugs for lung disease.
In exchange, Trump administration officials agreed to a three-year delay on new tariffs on AstraZeneca, which had previously announced plans to invest US$50 billion in the US in response to looming tariff threats.
“Most of our products are locally manufactured, but we need to transfer the remaining part to this country,” said AstraZeneca chief executive officer Pascal Soriot, who appeared with Trump, Oz and other officials at a White House event early Friday night.
The agreement comes on the heels of a Sept. 30 drug price accord with Pfizer that also included three-year tariff relief. Sky-high drug prices are a perennial source of widespread ire in the US, and have sparked numerous legislative and administrative actions the impact of which can be difficult to determine.
Shares of Pfizer and other drugmakers surged after the Sept. 30 announcement, suggesting they are not viewed as a major drag on profits.
“From a company perspective, you have more visibility going forward,” CFRA Research analyst Sel Hardy said. “They know they’ll not be facing tariffs for three years.”
Hardy said it was too early to discern the breadth of the Trump administration’s impact on drug prices in a broad sense.
Part of that would be determined by pricing negotiations next month on 15 leading drugs under legislation signed by former US president Joe Biden in 2022.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RSS