Exclusive-US pharmacies, drug discounters are discussing TrumpRx role with administration

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By Deena Beasley

(Reuters) -Retail pharmacies and prescription drug savings site GoodRx are talking with the Trump administration about joining its TrumpRx website, they told Reuters, suggesting an expansion beyond the early description of it as a link to pharmaceutical companies’ direct discounts.

Drugmakers, including Pfizer and Amgen, are offering to sell some brand-name medications directly to consumers at the negotiated prices they get from insurers rather than much higher list prices.

Some say they will work with TrumpRx, spurred in part by President Donald Trump’s threats of steep tariffs on drugmakers that don’t cut prices and increase U.S. manufacturing. The site is due to launch next year.

At a White House event last week, Trump and health officials described TrumpRx as a way to help consumers access drugs at discounted prices. How much value it represents to consumers is still uncertain.

Wendy Barnes, CEO of GoodRx, which connects consumers to drug company coupons and discounts, said the Trump administration understands that “if we include the pharma direct programs, we also have to find a way to convey competitive cash pricing at retail pharmacies.”

Shares of GoodRx rose 11.5% to $4.89 in afternoon trading on Thursday.

The National Community Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, which represent companies like Walgreens and Costco, said they were also talking with administration officials.

“As long as drugmakers deliver cost savings for American patients through TrumpRx, how they do so is irrelevant,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement.  

CONSUMERS ARE SHOPPING AROUND MORE

“This will be like consumers shopping on Amazon and seeing drug prices,” said Yunan Ji, assistant professor of strategy at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business.

Direct-to-consumer sales would benefit more patients if they accept health insurance, Ji said. Some drugmaker sales portals incorporate insurance benefits, while others are cash-pay only.

Many insured consumers shopping for the lowest price have already figured out how to make the most of discount programs.

Jacquie Persson, a graphic designer in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said a drugmaker-issued discount card cut her co-pay for an expensive migraine drug to $5 from about $100.

“I’m really lucky to have good insurance through my employer. My husband’s insurance isn’t as good,” she said. “I am a chronically ill individual … it is a stressful thing in the back of my mind to push through, keep working and not lose this good insurance.”

About 92% of Americans have health insurance, typically through their employer or government plans like Medicare, that limits out-of-pocket prescription costs.

But as healthcare costs have risen, an increasing number of plans require patients to spend thousands of dollars a year before coverage kicks in. Some plans do not cover certain medications, such as weight-loss drugs, or charge co-pays that exceed the cash price of a prescription.

ING Group estimated that if all branded medications were available directly from manufacturers, consumers could save $1.9 billion out of a $590 billion U.S. pharmaceutical market.  

PHARMACIES WANT LOWER PRICES TOO

Douglas Hoey, CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association, said that any direct-to-consumer prices drugmakers offer through TrumpRx should also be available at pharmacies.

“We don’t feel like patients should have to chase a discount and have their medications split up,” Hoey said. “We don’t think that is good care.”

Chris Krese, head of congressional relations at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, said “the role of local pharmacies and American pharmacists is essential” to keep track of things like drug interactions and overlaps.

His group would like the drugmaker direct-to-consumer sites to provide discount vouchers that could be applied at the pharmacy counter.

The manufacturer-run sites could be used by Americans who are uninsured but can afford to pay cash to fill a prescription for a drug. For people who can’t afford to pay, drugmakers say they will continue to offer assistance plans that supply discounted or free medication to millions of eligible patients.

“These are still brand-name drugs at very high prices that the vast majority of people can’t afford,” said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. 

(Reporting By Deena Beasley; additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw in Washington; editing by Caroline Humer, Bill Berkrot and Alan Barona)