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drug prices
Senate Republicans Block Sanders Amendment to Cut US Drug Prices by More Than 50%
Sen. Bernie Sanders said the amendment blocked by the GOP "would prevent pharmaceutical companies from charging more for prescription drugs in the United States than they do in Canada, the UK, Germany, France, and Japan."
Apr 23, 2026
Senate Republicans voted in the early hours of Thursday morning to reject an amendment offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders that aimed to cut US prescription drug prices in half by mandating that Americans pay no more for medications than people in Canada and other wealthy nations.
Just two Republicans, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, voted with every present Democrat in support of Sanders' (I-Vt.) proposed amendment to the GOP's emerging budget reconciliation package. Republicans plan to use the legislative vehicle to fund the Department of Homeland Security and its component agencies, principally Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The amendment vote put nearly every Senate Republican on the record against a policy supported by President Donald Trump. Last year, Trump signed an executive order directing federal health officials to "communicate most-favored-nation price targets to pharmaceutical manufacturers to bring prices for American patients in line with comparably developed nations."
But experts have noted that, without congressional action giving the federal government more power over drug pricing, pharmaceutical companies would not be required to comply with the proposed targets—rendering Trump's order effectively meaningless. Drug prices have continued to rise in the US despite Trump's order and his outlandish, mathematically impossible claims.
"If Trump is serious about making real change rather than just issuing a press release," Sanders said last year in response to Trump's executive order, "he will support legislation I will soon be introducing to make sure we pay no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries. If Republicans and Democrats come together on this legislation, we can get it passed in a few weeks."
The Sanders-led amendment that Republicans blocked on Thursday called for reducing "the price of prescription drugs in the United States by more than 50% by adopting most-favored-nation drug pricing so that the American people pay no more for prescription drugs than Europeans or Canadians."
Research has shown that Americans pay at least twice as much on average for prescription drugs as people in other wealthy nations.
"This amendment is very simple," Sanders said during Senate debate on Thursday. "It would prevent pharmaceutical companies from charging more for prescription drugs in the United States than they do in Canada, the UK, Germany, France, and Japan.”
Last May, Sanders and several of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate introduced the Prescription Drug Price Relief Act, which would require federal health officials to "review brand-name drugs annually for excessive pricing and, if a drug is found to be priced excessively, to void any exclusivity granted to its sponsor."
"Under the bill, a price is considered excessive if the domestic average manufacturing price exceeds the median price for the drug in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan," according to a summary of the legislation. "If a price does not meet this criteria, or if pricing information is unavailable in at least three of these countries, the price is still considered excessive if it is higher than reasonable in light of specified factors, including development cost, revenue, and the size of the affected patient population."
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As TrumpRx Scam Does Virtually Nothing, Big Pharma Jacks Up Prices on Cancer Drugs
"As they continue to hike prices, the pharmaceutical industry is also working overtime to block reforms that would lower them, and patients are paying the price."
Mar 23, 2026
A report released Monday found that Big Pharma has continued raising prices on dozens of cancer drugs, despite President Donald Trump's repeated false claims that he and his administration have slashed drug prices by a mathematically impossible 600%.
The analysis, conducted by Patients for Affordable Drugs, found that pharmaceutical companies increased prices on 64 oncology drugs in the first weeks of 2026, with the vast majority of price hikes coming in above the rate of inflation.
Patients for Affordable Drugs noted the heavy financial toll that paying for treatments takes on US cancer patients, and said the latest price increases would only exacerbate the crisis.
"Cancer drugs are among the most expensive drugs on the market, costing $74,000 more on average than non-cancer drugs," the group explained. "More than 42% of cancer patients in the US fully depleted their savings within two years of diagnosis to cover their care. More than half of Americans with cancer go into debt because of the cost of their care."
Making matters worse, the group added, is that Big Pharma is heavily lobbying Congress to pass legislation that would further delay small molecule drugs, including "widely used, high-cost cancer treatments," from becoming eligible for Medicare price negotiations.
Merith Basey, CEO of Patients for Affordable Drugs, stressed that the latest price increases were unacceptable given that "cancer is a leading cause of death among American seniors, and the treatments patients rely on are already among the most expensive."
"Yet as they continue to hike prices, the pharmaceutical industry is also working overtime to block reforms that would lower them," added Basey, "and patients are paying the price."
While the Patients for Affordable Drugs report focuses on cancer drugs, a December report from Reuters found that at least 350 branded medications are set for price hikes in 2026, including “vaccines against Covid, RSV, and shingles,” as well as the “blockbuster cancer treatment Ibrance.”
The total projected number of drugs seeing price increases in 2026 is significantly higher than in 2025, when 3 Axis Advisors estimated that pharmaceutical companies raised prices on 250 medications. The median price increase for drugs in 2026 is projected at 4%, roughly the same as in 2025.
All of these price increases have come despite Trump's false claims that he has lowered the prices of drugs to the point where pharmaceutical companies would actually be paying patients to take them.
An analysis released last week by the Center for American Progress (CAP) found that the president's TrumpRx initiative, which was created to purportedly offer Americans cheaper prescription drugs, offered genuinely lower prices on "exactly one" of the 54 medications listed on its website.
CAP also found that nearly one-third of the drugs available on the TrumpRx website have generic alternatives that were cheaper than what was being offered, and that the website made no mention of this.
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TrumpRx Denounced as Corrupt Scheme to Line Pockets of Big Pharma—and Don Jr.
"Trump has dressed up yet another corporate giveaway as a boon to patients," said one watchdog. "Real drug price reform doesn’t look like a website."
Feb 06, 2026
US President Donald Trump on Thursday launched a website, branded with his name, in a purported effort to help patients buy prescription drugs at lower prices.
But experts, watchdog groups, and Democratic lawmakers said TrumpRx will likely do little for consumers—or for the broader goal of bringing down exorbitant medicine costs—while further enriching Big Pharma and potentially lining the pockets of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
TrumpRx.gov, launched in partnership with pharmaceutical giants, points users to direct-to-patient sales platforms hosted by drug companies to facilitate the purchase of an extremely limited selection of medications. For example, TrumpRx's listing for Farxiga links users to AstraZeneca Direct, where patients can pay out of pocket for the type 2 diabetes medication.
Donald Trump Jr. is on the board of BlinkRx, a prescription drug platform that stands to benefit from the Trump administration's promotion of direct-to-patient medicine sales. In December, the president's son reportedly met with top drug company executives and administration officials responsible for regulating the pharmaceutical industry—a gathering hosted by BlinkRx.
Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement Thursday that TrumpRx "not only threatens patients’ health, safety, and privacy, but also likely includes kickback schemes designed to enrich President Trump, his family, and their friends."
"TrumpRx has been shrouded in secrecy from the beginning because the administration clearly does not want anyone to know it likely won’t save patients money," said Pallone. "However, we do know Trump only slaps his name on things when there’s something in it for him."
Last week, a group of Democratic senators sent a letter to the inspector general of the US Department of Health and Human Services warning that "without stricter safeguards before its official launch, TrumpRx could be used as a potential vehicle for unlawful kickback schemes that result in excessive costs for the federal government."
In addition to sending users to direct-to-patient sales sites, TrumpRx offers Trump-branded coupons for some medications. To obtain a coupon, site users must accept terms that state: "You agree that by redeeming this coupon, you (and anyone else acting on your behalf) agree not to seek reimbursement from any insurance plan for out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions purchased with this coupon. You also agree not to count the cost of prescriptions toward your deductible or true out-of-pocket costs."
The Washington Post reported that pharmaceutical companies "have agreed to list their drugs on TrumpRx.gov."
"TrumpRx is designed to help Big Pharma keep its prices high by diluting the bargaining power of insurance companies, weakening an important check on pharma."
Experts warned that patients who use TrumpRx could end up paying more for their medications than if they pursued other available options.
"TrumpRx’s offerings are very limited, fewer than 50 drugs listed, and most are niche products used by few patients," Rena Conti, an associate professor at Boston University, told ABC News. "Many are available in generic form at even lower prices or already available to consumers at low or even very low prices elsewhere. This suggests it pays for consumers to check their insurance coverage and ask their regular doctor or pharmacist before they use this service."
Peter Maybarduk, access to medicines director at Public Citizen, offered a more scathing assessment of TrumpRx, saying the president has "dressed up yet another corporate giveaway as a boon to patients."
"Most patients will do better through their insurance than through TrumpRx. Many patients without insurance will not be able to afford drugmakers’ still-high prices funneled through TrumpRx," said Maybarduk. "But drugmakers certainly will appreciate TrumpRx’s free promotion of their products, delivered with a false veneer of price accountability. TrumpRx is designed to help Big Pharma keep its prices high by diluting the bargaining power of insurance companies, weakening an important check on pharma."
“TrumpRx also appears to be another example of this president’s repeated corruption," he continued. "Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., sits on the board of BlinkRx, a key business that may benefit financially from TrumpRx. Getting serious about medicine affordability means getting serious about challenging Big Pharma. For all Trump’s talk, Big Pharma is getting a lot of special favors from this White House, while patients still are waiting. Real drug price reform doesn’t look like a website."
Throughout his second White House term, Trump has made outlandish promises to cut drug costs and hosted top executives at the White House to tout splashy deals—only for pharmaceutical giants to continue jacking up prices. Reuters reported last month that drugmakers planned to "raise US prices on at least 350 branded medications, including vaccines against Covid, RSV, and shingles and blockbuster cancer treatment Ibrance" in 2026.
Merith Basey, CEO of Patients for Affordable Drugs Now, said in a statement that the Trump administration's "voluntary agreements" with drug companies "lack clear enforcement mechanisms and still put the power to set and increase prices firmly in the hands of pharmaceutical corporations."
"Patients in our community will soon learn if they can reliably access these discounts at the pharmacy counter, where the program will ultimately be tested and where affordability matters most," Basey said of TrumpRx.
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