White House launches consumer drug site

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the launch of TrumpRx, a direct-to-consumer website that plays a key role in his administration’s efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs in the United States.

The president said millions of Americans will save money through TrumpRx, but it’s still unclear whether all patients — especially those with insurance coverage — will save more by using that site to buy their medications than with existing methods. TrumpRx targets people who are willing to pay cash and forgo insurance, suggesting that people with no or limited coverage could benefit the most.

The site does not sell drugs directly to U.S. patients, but will act as a central hub that directs them to drugmakers who offer discounts on certain products on their own direct-to-consumer sites, or gives them coupons to take to pharmacies. For example, Elie Lilly And Novo Nordisk were already offering their blockbuster obesity drugs at deeply discounted prices to patients paying cash, even before the discounts touted by Trump on Thursday.

In recent months, the two companies and at least 14 other drugmakers have negotiated deals with the Trump administration to participate in the platform and voluntarily sell certain drugs at a discount to Medicaid patients. The historic deals are part of Trump’s broader “most favored nation” policy, which aims to tie drug prices in the United States to the lowest prices abroad.

It’s the latest attempt by the U.S. government to try to rein in U.S. prescription drug prices, which are on average two to three times higher than those in other developed countries – and up to 10 times higher than in some countries, according to Rand Corp., a public policy think tank.

But TrumpRx “does not appear to be the only solution” to this problem for most Americans, said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the health insurance policy program at KFF, a health policy research organization. Cash offers might be better deals for patients without insurance, but it’s difficult to gauge exactly how many people will benefit from TrumpRx, she added.

“If they can get a drug covered by their insurance at a relatively affordable price, then there is not much benefit to using the TrumpRx website,” Cubanski said.

She said people with insurance coverage who purchase through direct-to-consumer platforms may also not have their purchases counted toward their benefits, meaning it doesn’t help them meet their deductible or maximum out-of-pocket amount.

But Cubanski said TrumpRx could be useful in expanding access to certain medications at more affordable prices, particularly drugs that are not widely covered by insurance in the United States, such as obesity medications. Medicare will begin covering weight loss treatments for the first time later this year under Lilly and Novo’s deals with Trump, but many employers are still hesitant to cover these drugs.

Still, many of the other products expected to be listed on TrumpRx are already largely covered by insurance, and some are available as cheaper generics from competing drugmakers.

Questions remain about how much savings people can expect if they buy their medications at direct-to-consumer prices.

Announced price reductions for certain drugs are presented as significant reductions from their retail prices. For example, under Novo Nordisk’s deal with the administration, its diabetes drug, Ozempic, will be sold for $350 a month on TrumpRx, less than half its monthly list price of about $1,000.

But those list prices are often much higher than what private insurers and government programs ultimately pay for the drugs after rebates, discounts and other concessions, according to researchers at Georgetown’s Medicare Policy Initiative. This suggests that some payers may already be getting prices comparable to — or lower than — the recently announced drug discounts under the Trump deals.

The Georgetown researchers cited a study that found average discounts on brand-name drugs in Medicare Part D are about 40 percent of list prices. Meanwhile, Medicaid cuts exceed 75 percent, according to a Congressional Budget Office study.

In the private sector, “we have insurers and pharmacy benefit managers who negotiate lower prices and design an insurance benefit that allows people to benefit from those price negotiations,” said KFF’s Cubanski.

“I guess for most drugs, at least for most brand name drugs, people are likely to get a better deal using their insurance rather than buying a drug through a direct-to-consumer website,” she said.

The administration has not provided a complete list of drugs that will be listed on TrumpRx.

But available information on recent drug pricing agreements indicates that many widely used drugs will have discounted prices listed on the site:

• Ozempic injection for diabetes, made by Novo Nordisk: $350 per month, down from about $1,000
• Wegovy obesity injection, made by Novo Nordisk: $350 per month, down from about $1,350
• Wegovy pill for obesity, made by Novo Nordisk: $150 per month for initial doses
• Related to Zep injection against obesity, made by Eli Lilly: $350 per month, compared to $1,086
• Truth for diabetes, made by Eli Lilly: $389 per month, compared to about $1,000
• Equality for migraines, made by Eli Lilly: $299, down from about $764
• Repatha to lower cholesterol, manufactured by Amgen: $239, down from $573
• Reyataz for HIV, carried out by Bristol Myers Squibb: $217, down from $1,449
• Januvia for diabetes, manufactured by Merck: $100, compared to $330
• Epcluse for hepatitis C, manufactured by Gilead: $2,425, compared to $24,920
• Jentadueto for diabetes, made by Boehringer Ingelheim: $55, down from $525
• Xofluza for flu, made by Genentech: $50, down from $168
• Advair Disk inhaler 500/50directed by GSK: $89, down from $265
• Mayzent for multiple sclerosis, manufactured by Novartis: $1,137, down from $9,987
• Plavixdirected by Sanofi: $16, down from $756

In an interview with CNBC at a conference in January, Chris Boerner, CEO of Bristol Myers Squibb, said the company offers several products on its existing direct-to-consumer platform, which first offered cash rebate on its blood thinner Eliquis. This platform will be linked to TrumpRx, he said.

The company will explore ways to add additional products to its portfolio on its own platform, “where it makes sense,” Boerner added. He said Bristol Myers was “aligned with the administration” on the issue of the U.S. health care system being too complex, and said multiple middlemen could drive up costs.

“What we like about them [direct-to-consumer models]”Where it makes sense from a business perspective is that you’re able to work around some of that,” Boerner said.

Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with CNBC last week, Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks said the company was the first drugmaker to sell obesity treatments directly to patients, and that TrumpRx was “taking that and expanding it industry-wide” to other drugs.

“We’re all for this,” Ricks said.